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v) Grant the costs of this Original Application."

6. The relief claimed in OA No. 180/356/2018 are as under:

"I) Declare that the applicant is entitled to reckon his GDS service from the year 1977 along with his regular service as Postman for pensionary benefits and to direct the respondents to grant the pension and other retirement benefits under the Old Pension Scheme with all consequential benefits.

II) To declare that applicant is entitled to be deemed to have been promoted as Postman from the date on which vacancy arose, against which he has actually been appointed, notionally and thus the notional service be counted as qualifying service for pensionary benefits.

III) To issue appropriate orders/directions directing the respondents to grant the applicant the benefit of CCS (Pension) Rules, 1972 treating his GDS service as qualifying for pensionary benefits.

IV) Award costs of and incidental to this application.

VI) Grant such other relief, which this Honourable tribunal may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case."

7. All the applicants commenced their service as ED agents and were later appointed as Postman on various dates. They seek the benefit of the order passed by the Principal Bench of the Tribunal in OA No. 749/2015 wherein it was directed that Gramin Dak Sevaks absorbed as regular Group- D will be granted pension reckoning their Gramin Dak Sevak service. The submit that the same principle must be applied in respect of the Gramin Dak Sevaks appointed as Postman. The applicants are aggrieved by the refusal of the respondents to reckon the service of the applicants as GDS as qualifying service for pension and that Rule 6 of GDS (C&E) Rules is ultra vires, based on which their service is not reckoned for pension. Hence, these Oas.

"As the name itself indicates, EDAs are not departmental employees. They become departmental employees from the date of their regular absorption as such. And promotions are only for departmental employees. Therefore, EDAs cannot be treated as 'promoted' as Postmen. They can be treated as only appointed as Postmen. It is further seen from instructions of Director General Posts under Rule 4 of Swamy's publication referred to earlier that EDAs service are terminated on appointment as Postman and hence they become eligible for ex gratia gratuity. If the recruitment of EDAs as Postman is treated as a promotion, the question of termination will not arise. This also leads one to conclude that the recruitment of EDAs Postman cannot be treated as one of promotion.

19. In C.C. Padmanabhan & Ors. v. Director of Public Instructions & Ors.- 1980 (Supp) SCC 668, the Hon'ble apex court held as under:

"'Promotion' as understood in ordinary parlance and also as a term frequently used in cases involving service laws means that a person already holding a position would have a promotion if he is appointed to another post which satisfies either of the two conditions namely that the new post is in higher category of the same service or class. Applying the above criteria appointment as Postman from EDA cannot be termed as promotion as the posts of Postman and EDA belong to two different services viz. regular Postal Service' and 'Extra Departmental Postal Service'"