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6. The Tribunal allowed the OA by placing reliance on the decision of the Division Bench of this Court in Union of India through Secretary, Ministry of Railways and Others Vs. Sarwar Ali WP (C) No.10011/2009 decided on 18th July, 2011. In the said decision, the Division Bench considered para 203.5 of the IREM, Volume 1 quoted hereinabove, and observed, as follows:-

"xxx Though Para 203.5 of IREM Vol-1 stipulates that date of appointment in the grade of Rs.6500-10500/- will be the criteria for determining seniority, however, no rule or para has been shown in support of the contention that the promotion to the next higher grade of Rs.7450-11500/- will be of no relevance. The Tribunal very pertinently observed that considering only Para 203.5 leads to an anomalous situation, as even though the respondent is given a higher grade of pay scale of Rs.7450-11500/- yet his seniority in the lower grade of Rs.6500-10500/- is taken into consideration and no weightage is given to the promotion of the respondent to the higher grade of Rs.7450-11500/-. If the respondent has been promoted to a higher grade, he cannot be considered to be junior on the basis of seniority in the lower grade, specially in comparison to those employees who are in the lower grade and who have failed or who were promoted only after the respondent to the next grade of Rs.7450-11500/-. Even according to the contentions of the respondent though 33 candidates had to be considered for 11 post, however, as 5 of the candidates out of the 33 had failed twice in earlier selections, therefore, 5 more candidates had been called for, as per seniority in the grade of Rs.6500-10500/-. Thus, the candidates/employees who even failed twice in the earlier selections were being considered in preference to the respondent who was promoted to the next higher grade, who undoubtedly is more meritorious, yet his seniority on account of his promotion to the next higher grade is completely ignored."

xxx xxx xxx "In the circumstances, para 203.5 could not be applied mechanically so as to eliminate the seniority of Senior Supervisor having grade 7450- 11500. The seniority for consideration for post of AOM (Group `B') has to be based on the seniority of grade 7450- 11500 and not on the basis of grade of Rs.6500-10500. Thus the para 203.5 Vol.I could not be interpreted and construed in a manner that it leads to anomalies, injustices or absurdities."

7. The submission of Mr.Sinha, learned counsel for the petitioners is that though the decision in Sarwar Ali (Supra) applies in the facts of the case, the said decision itself needs reconsideration. According to him, there are four depots in the Store Department of the Northern Railways i.e. Store Depot Shakurpur; Store Depot Jagadhari; Store Depot, Alambagh, Lucknow and Store Depot at Headquarters Office. He submits that in each of these store depots/units, promotions are earned by the incumbents unit-wise. However, for consideration for promotion to the post of Assistant Material Manager against 70% promotional quota, the candidates from all the four stores/units are entitled to compete. Since the promotional avenues in different units/stores may vary on account of the number of vacancies vis-a-vis the number of eligible candidates, promotions may be earned by employees in the different units at different point on time, even though they may have joined the service in the initial grade, at the same time. He submits that to deal with this situation, Para 203.5 of the IREM provides for drawing up the integrated seniority list for the purpose of selection, on the basis of total length of non-fortuitous service in the grade of Rs.6500-10500/- and above.