Principle Of Initial Date Of Appointment Valid Principle To Determine Inter-Se Seniority In Absence Of Rules To Contrary : Supreme Court

The Supreme Court of India has held that the principle of initial date of appointment or continuous officiation will be the valid principle to be considered for determination of inter se seniority in the absence of any rule or guidelines to the contrary.A Bench compromising Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice Abhay Oka has made the observations while delivering its judgement in appeals challenging. Taking note of the above mentioned points, the Bench therefore observed that "We are also of the view that in the matter of adjudging seniority of the candidates selected in one and the same selection, placement in the order of merit can be adopted as a principle for determination of seniority but where the selections are held separately by different recruiting authorities, the principle of initial date of appointment/continuous officiation may be the valid principle to be considered for adjudging inter se seniority of the officers in the absence of any rule or guidelines in determining seniority to the contrary." The Bench has upheld the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal whereby it observed that while adjudging seniority in silent in determining inter se seniority of the Commands at All India level, the only possibility and the rationale rule would be to have their seniority reckoned from the date of entering into service when he is compared to the person who belonged to yet another Command According to the Tribunal, it would be illogical if the incumbent who was appointed earlier is pushed down below the persons who were later appointed as in the present case after almost 4 to 5 years of the select panel being published in June 1983 and has not even taken birth in the Department are allowed to claim seniority anterior to the date of joining service. The Bench has also upheld the order of the Delhi High Court where it expressed its conformity with the view expressed by the Tribunal so far as the determination of combined inter se seniority at the All India level is concerned, With regard to the strong observations made by the Delhi High Court regarding the procedure being followed by the authority in making appointments from the select panel of June 1983 after 5 years of the selection, the Top Court as a matter of caution, observed that the authorities must be held accountable for their arbitrary action and save the institution from uncalled for litigation.