11 . The claim of the petitioners had been rejected initially under some order passed by the Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue), Gorakhpur, which became subject matter of litigation in Writ Petition No. 17591 of 2003 on the ground that the seniority list was old one and was not in accordance with Rules, 1974 and, therefore, cannot be relied upon. This Court in its order dated 27th February, 2004 passed in aforesaid writ petition has held that order to be absolutely without any application of mind and remitted the matter. Accordingly, it was a duty cast upon the Collector/ District Magistrate, Gorakhpur to consider the matter of seniority list in the light of the Rules, 1974 framed and the orders passed by the Board of Revenue, Lucknow, and then to record a finding that seniority list was wrong and a fresh seniority list was to be prepared. However, even this time while rejecting the claim of the petitioners under the order dated 26th May, 2004, the Collector proceeded, in the first instance, to reject the claim of the petitioners on the ground that their work of performance was below the eligibility criteria as per the Rules, 1974 and then it held that the seniority list prepared on 26th April, 1995 had to be cancelled after investigation and inquiry. But the order was absolutely silent as to when the said seniority list dated 26th April, 1995 was cancelled and as to when new seniority list came to be prepared. It appears that even before this Court when the said order came to be challenged in Writ Petition No. 22375 of 2004, the only stand was taken that list of 1995 was cancelled.
