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2.1 The applicant initially joined as a Commercial Clerk in the year 1993 in the Railway Department on his being selected by the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB), Mumbai.

He was promoted as Divisional Commercial Inspector and placed in the pay scale of Rs.2375-3500.

2.2 In the year 1994-95, the respondent-railway department started process for selection for the post of Assistant Commercial Manager (ACM) in the pay scale of Rs.2000- 3200. The selection was to be made on merit-cum-seniority basis. Since the zone of consideration was to include the employees from different streams of the Railways, the provisions of para 203.5 of Indian Railway Establishment Manual, Volume-I (IREM-I), 1989 Edition, were invoked for determining the eligibility of the employees to be included in the zone of consideration. The said para 203.5 is extracted below:

2.4 The employees in the pay scale of Rs.2000-3200 were thus to be considered for selection for the post of ACM. Since the applicant was in the pay scale of Rs.2375-3500, he was not called for participating in the selection process. He made a representation dated 16.6.1995, which was followed by another representations dated 25.2.1996 (Annexure A-3). His plea in the representations was that he was the senior- most Group 'C' employee in the pay scale of Rs.2375-3500 and was eligible for selection to the post of ACM - a Group 'B' post in the pay scale of Rs.2000-3200. His grievance is that denial of opportunity to him to participate in the selection process for the post of ACM had adversely affected his career prospects and that respondents had failed to appreciate that in case a person in the lower grade is selected as ACM, a Group 'B' post, those who were in the higher grade in Group 'C' like him would become subordinate to their own juniors. The applicant has further pleaded that para 203.5 of IREM-I did not prohibit participation of Group 'C' employees in the pay scale of Rs.2375-3500 in the selection for the post of ACM albeit the post of ACM was in the lower pay scale of Rs.2000-3200. Since his representations were not given due consideration by the respondents, the applicant has filed the instant OA, praying for the reliefs as indicated in para-1 supra.

b) A large number of juniors of the applicant were allowed to participate in the selection process for the post of ACM but the legitimate right of the applicant to participate in the selection process was ignored by the respondents and even the provisions of para 203.5 of IREM-I had not been judiciously complied.

4. Pursuant to the notices issued, the respondents entered appearance and filed their reply in which they have broadly made the following averments:

i) Para 203.5 of IREM-I states that integrated seniority should be determined on the basis of total length of non-

8. Shri V.S.R. Krishna, learned counsel for the respondents also confined his arguments to the pleadings of the respondents in their reply. He, however, sought dismissal of the OA on the ground of inordinate delay in filing the OA against a cause of action which arose in the year 1994-95.

9. We have considered the arguments of the learned counsel for the parties and have also perused the pleadings and documents annexed thereto. Indisputably, the selection for the post of ACM was done by the respondents in the year 1994-95. The integrated seniority list for considering the candidates eligible for participating in the selection process was drawn on the basis of the provisions of para 203.5 of IREM-I, referred to hereinabove. According to para-203.5, the basis of drawl of integrated seniority was non-fortuitous service rendered by the candidates in the pay scale of Rs.2000-3200. The applicant could not make it to the list on account of his length of service. Hence, no fault can be found on the part of the respondents in not considering the applicant for selection.