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7. In the year 2002, the Ministry brought about a major restructuring of the cadres in the Customs and Central Excise Departments and all the posts in the ministerial cadre (UDCs Special Pay, UDCs, Tax Assistants, LDCs) and the DEO Grades in the technical cadre were integrated and two new cadres were created, viz. (i) Senior Tax Assistants (Rs.5000-8000) and (ii) Tax Assistants (Rs.4000-6000).

8. The erstwhile Ministerial posts such as Assistants, Tax Assistants, Upper Division Clerks Special Pay (UDCs Spl.Pay) and the technical posts such as DEO Grade B and DEO Grade C were merged together and redesignated as Senior Tax Assistants. Similarly, the posts of UDC, DEO Grade A and LDC were integrated and redesignated as Tax Assistant.

9. New Recruitment Rules were issued, viz. Central Excise and Customs Department Senior Tax Assistant (Group C Post) Recruitment Rules, 2003 (hereinafter referred to as "STA RR 2003") and Central Excise and Customs Department Tax Assistant (Group C Post) Recruitment Rules, 2003 (hereinafter referred to as "TA RR 2003"). Under STA RR, 2003, the seniority in the redesignated post, viz. Senior Tax Assistant was fixed in the following order:

I. Senior Tax Assistant (Rs.5000-8000):
1.Assistants (Rs.5000-8000)

11. Under TA RR, 2003, the seniority for the redesignated post, viz. Tax Assistant was fixed as under:

II. Tax Assistant (Rs.4000-6000):
1.UDCs
2.DEOs Grade A
3.LDCs The inter se seniority among these candidates has been fixed in accordance with the date of appointment in the respective post. Thus, the restructure of the cadre resulted in the merger/integration of LDCs, UDCs and Tax Assistants of the ministerial cadre and the DEOs of the technical cadre.

12. As stated already, the employees who were working in the pre-restructured ministerial cadres of UDC, UDC Special Pay, Steno Grade II, Steno Grade III, Women Searcher and Tax Assistant were eligible for promotion to the post of Inspector (Preventive Officer). A group of UDCs of the Department, who are working as Preventive Officers on ad hoc basis, challenged Rule 5(ii) of the STA RR, 2003 and Rule 4(4) of the TA RR, 2003 prescribing the inter se seniority among the erstwhile ministerial cadre staff and technical cadre staff inasmuch as in the restructured cadre they were ranked junior to those employees who were promoted as DEO Grade C and DEO Grade B. The erstwhile UDCs claim that the inter se seniority among the erstwhile ministerial cadre and the technical cadre in the restructured cadres should be fixed on the basis of the date of joining the Department as LDCs.