LUCKNOW, July 22 -- The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad high court on Monday dismissed two special appeals filed by the state government and others challenging the single-judge verdict dated February 24, 2025 that had quashed the seniority list of review officers in the Uttar Pradesh Civil Secretariat. A division bench of Chief Justice Arun Bhansali and Justice Jaspreet Singh passed the order on the two special appeals filed by the state of UP and two others. The single-judge bench had set aside the seniority list of review officers in the Uttar Pradesh Civil Secretariat issued on September 6, 2023, along with the related promotion orders dated October 25, 2023. In its ruling, the single-judge bench had directed the state authorities to recognise the petitioners as having been promoted to the post of review officers from July 13, 2016, and to grant them seniority benefits accordingly. The bench also instructed the preparation of a revised seniority list based on its directions and to reconsider the petitioners' promotion as per legal provisions. The single-judge bench of Justice Alok Mathur had delivered the judgment on February 24 while allowing petitions filed by Shiv Datt Joshi and others, as well as Sanjeev Kumar Sinha and others, challenging the seniority list and consequential promotion orders. The case centred on a long-standing dispute between direct recruits and promotees in the secretariat administration department. The petitioners, initially appointed as junior grade clerks in 1990 and later promoted as assistant review officers in 2005, were elevated to the rank of review officers in 2016. However, a revision order issued on August 6, 2023, altered their appointment date from June 30, 2016, to July 13, 2016. The subsequent seniority list of September 6, 2023, placed them lower in rank, while direct recruits, previously junior to them, were granted promotions ahead of them. The state authorities and private respondents had contested the petitions, raising objections over their maintainability. However, the single-judge bench had dismissed these arguments. It had ruled that the absence of other promoted individuals from the petition did not affect its validity....