IN THE HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND AT NAINITAL Writ Petition No. 197 (S/B) of 2005 Old Number Writ Petition No. 1266 (S/B) of 2000 Shyam Singh Chauhan. …..…Petitioner. Versus State of Uttar Pradesh and another. …...…Respondents. Mr. S.K. Mandal, Advocate present for the petitioner. Mr. H.M. Raturi, Standing Counsel for the State of Uttarakhand. Judgment Coram: Hon’ble Barin Ghosh, CJ. Hon’ble Nirmal Yadav, J. Barin Ghosh, C.J. (Oral) Petitioner, Junior Engineer in the Irrigation Department, was promoted to the post of Assistant Engineer in the year 1998. In the present writ petition filed in the year 2000, petitioner contended that his promotion of 1998 be pre-dated to 1987. The basic reason given in the writ petition in support of the prayer was that petitioner in 1987 became eligible to be promoted, for by that time he had served as Junior Engineer for seven years. It was the further contention of the petitioner that he is a Scheduled Tribe Candidate and that there were vacancies available, which were reserved for Scheduled Tribe Candidates, and as the petitioner was the only Scheduled Tribe candidate, he 2 should have been promoted. It was also the case of the petitioner that, as would be evident from the seniority list, petitioner was treated by the department as a person belonging to general category and it took considerable period of time for the department to gather that he in fact belongs to Scheduled Tribe category. It was contended that the delay in his promotion was thus caused for no fault on his part. 2. There is no dispute that in accordance with Service Rules in order to be promoted to the post of Assistant Engineer a Junior Engineer is required to serve as such for a period of seven years. However, promotion is subject to seniority and subject to rejection for unfit. A counter affidavit to the writ petition was filed as far back as on 10.12.2001. In the said counter affidavit, it was stated that the petitioner was regularized in the post of Junior Engineer on 01.04.1991. In the counter affidavit, it was further stated that in 1992 the case of the petitioner was considered for promotion along with similarly placed Scheduled Tribe Junior Engineers, when those Junior Engineers ousted the petitioner on the basis of their seniority. Petitioner filed a rejoinder affidavit to the said counter affidavit on 13.03.2010 but surprisingly did not deal with the said pointed assertion contained in the counter affidavit. 3. In those circumstances, nothing can be done on the writ petition. Further more on the basis of pleadings, this court is not in a position to come to a 3 conclusion that the petitioner could be judged fit prior to the date he was judged fit and was accorded promotion on the basis of his seniority. Writ petition, accordingly, fails and the same is dismissed. (Nirmal Yadav, J.) (Barin Ghosh, C.J.) 11.11.2010 SKS