(1) All officers holding a higher rank shall be senior to officers holding a lower rank.
(2) In a particular rank, —
(i) Inter-se seniority of officers promoted to a particular rank in a branch shall be determined in accordance with the order of merit which shall be prepared by the Departmental Promotion Committee. However, inter-se seniority of officers in a particular rank shall be determined in accordance with the date of substantive promotion to that rank and where two or more officers are promoted to a rank on the same day, their seniority shall be determined in accordance with their seniority in the previous rank. If that also happens to be the same then the basic date and ultimately the date of birth shall be the deciding factor, the elder being the senior.
(ii) officers holding substantive rank shall be senior to officers holding acting rank. Similarly, officers holding acting rank shall be senior to officers holding officiating rank.
(iii) seniority of officers appointed to any rank in an acting or officiating capacity shall be determined in accordance with the seniority in the substantive rank.
iv. [In the case of officers who fail to qualify the training prescribed in rule 10,subrule (5) with their entry batch, and qualify with any subsequent batch, their inter-se seniority for the purpose of promotion shall be determined in the order of merit of the batch with which they finally qualify