Engineer to Sub Divisional Engineer are required to be made on the basis of a selection which is to be conducted every year. The channel of promotion under the Rule with which the writ petition would be concerned is source No.4 i.e. from the stream of Junior Engineers who have AMIE Degree. No selection was held in the years 1977, 1978 and 1979 and according to the petitioner a Composite Selection was held in the year 1980 for all the vacancies available in the three preceding years and a common select list in respect of all such vacancies was prepared by the Selection Committee. It is not in dispute that the petitioner had acquired the AMIE degree in the year 1978. What he contends is at that point of time, one of the persons selected, namely, Amarjit Singh, (not a party herein) was not eligible for consideration for promotion as the said person had acquired the AMIE Degree in 1979. In the selection held in the year 1980, Amarjit Singh, being senior to the petitioner in service, the case of the said person was duly considered and he was promoted. According to the petitioner, if the selections had been held every year he would have been selected in the year 1978 as the above-said Amarjit Singh would not have been eligible for consideration in the said selection. Learned counsel has pressed into service two judgments of the Hon'ble Apex Court in Union of India and others vs. Vipinchandra Hiralal Shah, (1996) 6 Supreme Court Cases 721 and Union of India and others vs. N.R.Banerjee and others, (1997) 9 Supreme Court Cases 287 to contend that selections are required to be held year-wise and separate select list for each year is required to be prepared even in case where there is a composite selection after a number of years.
