ALTAF HUSSAIN MALI Vs. ELLAQUI DEHATI BANK

JUDGEMENT

(1.) "Seniority -cum -Merit Rule" provided in Regional Rural Banks (Appointment and Promotions of Officers and Other Employees) Rules, 1998 (for short 'Rules of 1998) is placed at the focused position in these writ petitions. What is the purport and promise of "seniority -cum -merit" rule requires to be adjudicated upon in the writ petitions.

(2.) THE facts in all these petitions are more or less not only similar but identical as well, which has necessitated hearing of these petitions together, and are accordingly decided by this common judgment.

(3.) A common thread running through all these petitions reveal that all the petitioners came to be appointed as Branch Managers in the respondent -bank in pursuance of recruitment process initiated in the year 1981. The petitioners in all the writ petitions came to be appointed as Branch Managers in pursuance of the said selection process, in the month of Nov. 1982. After successfully completing two years probation period the service of petitioners in all the writ petitions have been confirmed in the year 1984.