IMPORTANT POINTS
A person is disentitled to claim seniority from a date he was not borne in service.
When High Court directs preparation of seniority list in accordance with its observations, State has no option but to comply. Preparation of independent list is not permissible.

JUDGMENT :

HRISHIKESH ROY, J.

1. Leave Granted.

2. These matters pertain to an inter-se seniority dispute in the Manipur Police Service Grade II Officers Cadre, hereinafter referred to as “MPS Grade II Cadre”.

The appellants before us in the SLP (C) No. 19565-67 of 2019 were few of the respondents in the W.P.(C) No. 366 of 2013. They are to be described hereinafter as “direct recruits”. The respondents in this SLP were the Writ Petitioners in the High Court who were appointed on promotion to the MPS Grade II Cadre. For clarity and ease of understanding, they are being referred as “promotees” in this judgment.

3. Prior to their induction (on 01.03.2007) to the MPS Grade II Cadre, the promotees were serving as Inspector of Police and they were granted promotion on the basis of a duly constituted Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC). On the other hand, the Private Respondents 3 to 32 and no. 33 in the Writ Petition (C) No. 366 of 2013 were directly recruited into the MPS Grade II Cadre, vide the respective orders dated 14.08.2007 and 24.11.2007.

4. Appointment and seniority in the Manipur Police Service is governed by the Manipur Police Service Rules, 1965 (hereinafter referred to as “the MPS Rules, 1965”). After considering the claims and objections and in compliance with the Court’s direction (18.02.2013) in W.P(C) No. 235 of 2012, the Govt. of Manipur, applying the principle of dovetailing between the promotees and the direct recruit officers, issued the Order on 17.5.2013 publishing the final seniority list (as on 01.04.2013), of the MPS Grade II Officers. The promotees challenged this through the Writ Petition (C) No. 366 of 2013 in the High Court of Manipur. By amending their Writ Petition, the promotees also challenged the subsequent Govt. orders dated 20.01.2014 and 19.02.2014 where the direct recruits were placed above them.

5. Before the Writ Court, the promotees contended that they entered the MPS Grade II Cadre on 01.03.2007 whereas the private respondent nos.3 to 33 were appointed subsequently (on 14.08.2007 and 24.11.2007 respectively) and, therefore, they should be regarded as senior to the direct recruits.

6. The direct recruits on the other hand claimed seniority over the promotees by contending that seniority has to be decided in accordance with the year of the vacancy and not by the fortuitous date on which, the appointment could be finalized for the direct recruits.

7. In an earlier proceeding i.e., Writ Petition (C) No. 235 of 2012, in an inter-se seniority dispute amongst the direct recruits and promotees in the MPS Grade II Cadre, the State in their counter affidavit took the stand that seniority should be determined from the date on which the person was appointed but not from the date of vacancy. For the direct recruits appointed on 14.08.2007 against the vacancy of 2004-2005 it was averred that their seniority should be counted from the date of appointment.

8. The learned Judge heard the parties, applied his mind to the Office Memorandums produced before him and by the common judgment dated 07.07.2017 quashed the impugned orders. It is seen that single Judge directed that the batch of promotees appointed on 01st of March 2007 must be given seniority above the direct recruits appointed on 14th August, 2007 and he justified this by stating that a direct recruit can claim seniority only from the date of his regular appointment and cannot claim seniority from a date when he is not borne in the service. For this conclusion, the learned Judge had relied upon, inter alia, the ratio in Jagdish Chandra Patnaik’ vs. State of Orissa, (1998) 4 SCC 456. The Court also held that the expression “year” must refer to financial year and not calendar year. Support for such conclusion is based on the Office Memorandum dated 29.4.1999 which contains instructions to be followed by DPC in the matter of holding its meetings towards promotion which is one of the methods of recruitment. This Memo specifies that the recruitment year would