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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
SHREE CHANDRASHEKHAR, CJ., GAUTAM A. ANKHAD
Deepak Kumar – Appellant
Versus
Union of India, Through Ministry of Finance, Department of Revenue – Respondent
JUDGMENT :
SHREE CHANDRASHEKHAR, CJ.
In these writ petitions, the order dated 15th March 2024 in Original Application No. 991 of 2022 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Mumbai Bench (in short, Tribunal) has been challenged. In OA No.991 of 2022 filed by Ashwani Kumar Anand and 10 other promotee Inspector (Examiner), co-employees Deepak Kumar, Deepak Keshri, Nitesh Chaudhary and Pasula Sravan who are the direct recruit Inspector (Examiner) were arrayed as the respondent nos.5 to 8. In the said OA, a challenge was laid to the seniority list dated 7th December 2021 and paragraph no. 7(iii) of the DoPT Office Memorandum (in short, OM) dated 13th August 2021. The seniority list dated 7th December 2021 was challenged primarily on the ground that the departmental Authority ignored the decision in “K. Meghachandra Singh”, [K. Meghachandra Singh and Others v. Ningam Siro and Ors” (2020) 5 SCC 689] and assigned seniority to the aforementioned four co-employees from a back date. The following reliefs were sought by them : -
“(a) This Hon’ble Tribunal may graciously be pleased to call for the records and proceedings which led to the issuance of impugned Seniority List dated 07.12.2021
Seniority for government employees must be determined from the date of appointment, not the initiation of recruitment, as upheld in relevant Supreme Court decisions.
Service Laws – Seniority List – OMs made it clear that seniority of direct recruits had to be fixed from the date of appointment and not from date of initiation of recruitment process.
Seniority in government service is determined by the date of appointment, not just the year joined in the cadre, protecting prior established seniority rights.
The court ruled that seniority must be based on vacancy year not appointment date, ensuring uniform application of established seniority principles per previous judicial rulings.
Seniority – Inter-se seniority between promotees and direct appointees – As far as posts of Income Tax Inspectors are concerned, principle of rota and quota or rotation of quota will apply.
Determination of seniority must comply with Supreme Court rulings, emphasizing the significance of actual appointment dates over vacancy years, as retrospective seniority is not permissible.
Seniority cannot be granted to employees not borne in the cadre; it must reflect the actual date of joining. A fresh seniority list should be prepared following Supreme Court rulings.
Seniority assigned to any employee could not be changed after a lapse of 7 years, though even on merit it was found that seniority of the petitioner therein had correctly been fixed.
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