Heard the learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned Standing Counsel for respondents 3 to 7, apart from perusing the record. Since the issue lies in a narrow compass, this Court proposes to dispose of the writ petition at the admission stage itself. 2. Briefly stated, the petitioner, a Senior Manager working under respondents 4 and 5, has aspired to be promoted as Administrative Officer. In terms of the promotion policy, if a person in the feeder category possesses MBA, he shall be given fifteen additional marks at the time of considering his candidature for promotion. In the present instance, initially the petitioners were given fifteen additional marks since all of them possessed MBA qualification obtained from Annamalai University. Accordingly, their names were included in the rank list duly reflecting against their names the marks given to them, including the marks for possessing MBA. Later, at the time when the petitioners faced the written test, respondents 4 and 5 deducted the said fifteen marks from the total marks of each petitioner, thus pushing them below in the rank. Aggrieved thereby, the petitioners have approached this Court by filing the present writ petition.
3. The learned Standing Counsel for respondents 4 and 5 have initially filed a counter affidavit disputing the claim of the petitioners. Today, when the matter is taken up for further consideration, the learned Standing Counsel, on instructions, has submitted that the respondents having reconsidered the issue have eventually decided to add once again the fifteen marks for the qualification which the petitioners possessed. Thus, it can be seen that the grievance of the petitioners stands squarely answered.
4. Before parting with the matter, this Court desires to place on record a word of appreciation on the attitude of respondents 4 and 5 and also that of the learned Standing Counsel on their behalf in ensuring an amicable settlement of the issue instead of fighting on technicalities. More particularly a change in the stand after filing the counter affidavit to ensure that there is no needless discrimination of the employees in the feeder category based on their source of qualification needs to be commended.
Accordingly, having felt that there is no issue to be adjudicated, this Court disposes of the writ petition in terms of the submissions made by the learned Standing Counsel for respondents 4 and 5.
Dama Seshadri Naidu, Judge tkv