IMPORTANT POINT
Direct recruits cannot claim appointment from date of vacancy in quota before their selection.

JUDGMENT

Aftab Alam, J.—

1. Leave granted.

2. This appeal arises from a dispute of seniority in the cadre of Tahsildars in the J & K Revenue (Gazetted) Service. A dispute of seniority between direct recruits and promotees normally tends to be bitter and thorny. This one is particularly so as it is the product of years of ad-hoc arrangements and it further involved, at least at the stage of the High Court the additional dispute in regard to the date with effect from which the promotee Naib Tahsildars were regularised as Tahsildars. In this appeal, however, on behalf of the State of Jammu and Kashmir we are only concerned with the dispute of seniority between the promotees and the direct recruits in the J & K Revenue (Gazetted) Service. The dispute is now almost a quarter of a century old (the other part, with which we are not concerned in this appeal, of course goes far behind it). During this period of about twenty five years the matter has undergone three rounds of litigations and has seen countless writ petitions and Letters Patent Appeals in the High Court of J & K ending up in appeals, (including the one in hand), before this Court. The first round was in regard to the claim by a number of candidates, who, though finding place in the select list prepared by the State Public Service Commission were denied appointment by the State government. They claimed appointment to the different services under the State government on the basis of their selection by the Commission. On being successful in the first round and on entering the service, some of the direct recruits started the next round claiming what they considered their due seniority on the basis of the vacancies against which their appointments were made. At the end of round two, following the orders of the High Court and this Court, the State Government, gave the direct recruits notional seniority with effect from 1984. This led to the beginning of the third round of litigation in which the direct recruits challenged the government order of their notional seniority and claimed seniority over the Naib Tahsildars who on being promoted as Tahsildars were regularised on those posts with effect from January 1, 1984 allegedly far in excess of their quota in the service and in violation of the statutory rules. In the last round a division bench of the High Court once again grappled with the matter and tried to finally resolve and settle the issue by a long and exhaustive judgment at the end of which the direct recruits were granted almost everything that they prayed for.

3. Before proceeding further it will be useful to state the relevant facts and we propose here to confine to the barest, necessary for disposing of this appeal. On October 8, 1973 the State Government appointed about 118 people as Naib Tahsildars in the State’s Revenue (Subordinate) Service. The appointments were temporary and subject to the express condition that the appointees would pass the departmental examination for Naib Tahsildars conducted by the State’s Public Service Commission within two years (being the period of probation under the relevant rules) failing which they would be liable to be discharged from service. Only a few were able to satisfy the condition but the default stipulation was never invoked in regard to those who were not able to clear the examination. Instead, the period of Probation was extended by one year for about 83 appointees who were unable to pass the examination within the prescribed time. Later on, some of those Naib Tahsildars who were able to pass the departmental examination for Naib Tahsildar also appeared in the examination of Tahsildar held by the J & K Public Service Commission. The result of the examination was published on December 7, 1981 and four Naib Tahsildars who were able to pass the examination were promoted as Tahsildars in the State’s Revenue (Gazetted) Service by order dated February 2, 1982. Later, the govt. retrospectively modified the relevant rules conc