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3. The petitioners in these writ petitions are working as Superintendent in the Municipal Administration Department. According to the petitioners, as per the Service Rules, the post of Superintendent is the feeder category for promotion to the post of Municipal Commisisoner, Grade II by recruitment by transfer and they are eligible to be posted as Municipal Commissioner Grade II on transfer based on seniority. According to the petiitoners, the post of Municipal Commissioner, Grade-II is governed by Special Rules for Tamil Nadu Municpial Commissioner Subordinate Service Rules. This Rule was amended by the Government by issuing GO Ms. No.191, Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department dated 11.08.1999 by which the post of Municipal Commissioner Grade-II shall be filled up from among the categories of (i) Direct recruitment through Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (ii) Municipal Employees coming under Tamil Nadu Municipal General Service (iii) Assistant Section Officers working in the Secretariat (iv) Superintendents of Directorate of Municipal Administration, being ministerial service and (v) Executive Officers of the Town Panchayat which also comes under the Ministerial Service. According to the petiitoners, the ratio in which the 20 vacancies are to be distributed among the feeder categories are (i) five vacancies prescribed for recruitment from open market through the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (ii) four vacancies for the Assistant Section Officers working in the Secretariat (iii) three vacancies for the Superintendent working in the office of the Directorate of Municipal Administration (iv) two for the Executive Officers of the Town Panchayat and (v) six vacancies for Municipal Employees. It is the case of the petitioners that a twenty point rotation is prescribed under Rule 2 (c) of the Special Rules for Tamil Nadu Municipal Commissioner Subordinate Service for distribution of the vacancies to the post of Municipal Commisisoner, Grade-II and it is designed in such a manner that the vacancies are distributed evenly with appropriate interval so that none of the employees in the feeder categories have to wait for all the 20 vacancies to arise. Thus, a roaster is kept according to the twenty point rotation and whenever vacancies arises, it is distributed evenly to the next feeder category in the roaster. As per the provisio to Rule 2 of the Special Rules, if for any reason, an officer is not available for conferring the promotion as and when his turn comes, the turn will lapse and the vacancy shall be filled by an incumbent from the other category. In this fashion, till 2014-2015, the roaster has been followed and exhausted to the turn of 207. The next turn is 208 and the vacancy falls to the municipal employees as per the rotation. Therefore, for the year 2015-2016, the number of vacancies estimated in the post of Municipal Commissioner Grade-II is 20 and the roaster begins at 208 and ends at 227.

4. The learned counsel for the petitioners would contend that at present, the cadre strength of Municipal Commissioner Grade-II is 48. However, instead of following the roaster system as per the Rules, the first respondent proposed to fill up the vacant posts by giving a proportional representation to different categories by counting the serving incumbents in the Grade-II Municipal Commisioner post and proposed to appoint the incumbents. Therefore, according to the learned counsel for the petitioners, the first respondent has gone on to fix an arbitrary number for appointment from the respective categories, by taking a quota for each category which is in gross violation of Rule 4 of the General Rules. The vacancies, according to the learned counsel for the petitioners, must be estimated and roaster has to be applied for appointment. The learned counsel for the petitioners also brought to the notice of this Court that the fourth respondent, in his letters dated 09.04.2015 and 16.06.2015 has submitted proposal to the first respondent to make appointment to the post of Municipal Commissioner Grade-II on the basis of roaster system and inspite of the same, the first respondent, without following the Rules and application of the roaster system, has proposed to make appointment by taking the total strength as estimated vacancy and the ratio to each category has been fixed disproportionately and arbitrarily. According to the learned counsel for the petitioners, whenever a vacancy arises in the post of Municipal Commissioner Grade-II, such vacancies shall be carried forward to the next category in the rotation. Howevery the impugned order has been issued by applying unknown and unreasonable logic in gross violation of Rules. It is specifically pointed out by the learned counsel for the petitioner that for the year 2014-2015, a proposal was sent indicating the estimated vacancy but it was ignored by the first respondent.

6. The learned Additional Advocate General appearing for the official respondents would oppose the writ petitions filed by the petitioners. By placing reliance on the vacate stay petition filed in WP No. 39480 of 2015, it is contended that the post of Municipal Commissioner, Grade-II is an entry level post in the Tamil Nadu Municipal Commissioners Subordinate Services. As per the Special Rules for Tamil Nadu Municipal Commissioners Subordinate Services, the appointment to the service is made in the ratio of 6 : 5 : 9 by (i) direct recruitment (ii) from open market and (iii) by recruitment by transfer from among the Executive Officers of the Town Panchayat, Assistant Section Officers attached to the Secretariat Service and (iii) Superintendent from the Directorate of Municipal Administration. As regards the 20 point roaster, it is contended by the learned Additional Advocate General that it is meant for fixing the seniority of the individuals appointed in the post of Municipal Commissioner Grade-II and it has nothing to do with the distribution of vacancies which are filled up in the ratio of 6 : 5 : 9 as per the Rules without exceeding the cadre strength prescribed in Rule 2 of Tamil Nadu Municipal Commissioner Subordinate Services. According to the learned Additional Advocate General, when an appointment is made from various categories, the vacancies are to be filled up only by the ratio and the roaster has nothing to do with the appointment. The roaster has to be applied and/or adopted only for the purpose of fixing the inter- se seniority among those categories in the post in which they were appointed. Even as per the provisio to Rule 2 of the Special Rules, where for any such turn, an officer of the required category is not available, the turn will lapse and the vacancy shall be filled by an incumbent from other category. An incumbent will lapse the turn due to variety of reasons including pendency of disciplinary proceedings, currency of punishment, retirement etc.,

14. The grievance of the petitioners is that the official respondents, while apportioning the estimated vacancies, have not taken into consideration the eligible Superintendents like the petitioners for appointment to the post of Municipal Commissioner Grade-II by erroneously applying the 20 point roaster system. According to the petitioners, as per the roaster, the last candidate appointed in the year 2014-2015 was in the 208th turn and it ended with 227th turn. Therefore, the roaster has to begin from the 228th turn for further appointment to the post of Municipal Commissioner. However, this averment of the petitioners has been denied as incorrect by the official respondents by stating that in the year 2014-2015, there were only 18 vacancies and it ended in 209th turn. Therefore, for the year 2015-2016, the roaster has to begin with 210th turn and ends at 229th turn. In any event, according to the respondents the roaster system has been introduced to ensure adequate representation of each of the feeder categories while conferring promotion without leaving any of the categories unrepresented and it has nothing to do with the estimating the vacancies.