ORDER :

1. Instant petition has been directed against the impugned order dated 15.12.2020 passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal, Jaipur Bench, Jaipur (hereinafter referred as ‘the Tribunal’) by which the original application filed by the respondents No. 6 to 21 (hereinafter referred as ‘the private respondents’) has been allowed, the impugned draft/provisional seniority list has been set aside and the official respondents No. 1 to 5 have been directed to revisit the draft seniority list in the light of the current legal position, including the judgment delivered by Hon’ble the Apex Court in the case of K. Meghachandra Singh and Others vs. Ningam Siro and Others in Civil Appeal No. 8833-8835/2019 decided on 19.11.2019 and publish a fresh seniority list, within 3 months from the date of receipt of a certified copy of the order.

2. Brief facts of the case are that the private respondents submitted an original application before the Tribunal for quashing the draft seniority list dated 11.03.2020 by mentioning the facts that they were appointees of the year 2011/2012 and 2013 on the post of Lower Division Clerks/Upper Division Clerks in ESI Corporation in Gujarat/Punjab/Maharashtra Regions. Under the Inter Regional Transfer Policy (for short ‘IRT policy’) they were transferred to the Rajasthan Region in the month of August/October, 2016, pursuant to which they joined in Rajasthan Region on different dates in the month of August, 2016. It was the case of the private respondents that the respondent No. 2-Director General, Department of Employees State Insurance Corporation issued an Inter Regional Transfer Policy in respect of Ministerial Staff upto Assistant Cadre on 05.03.2013, which provides that the officials who have completed three years service, including the period spent on probation, in their present region would only be eligible for applying for Inter Regional Transfer under the policy. Clause 5 of the policy provides criteria for fixation of seniority of Inter Regional Transfer cases, according to which seniority of transferee would be fixed below all the employees appointed during the year in the recipient region and the inter-se seniority of the parent region will remain undisturbed. It was the case of the private respondents that they were eligible for Inter Regional Transfer in terms of the aforesaid policy. Hence, they sought their transfer from Gujarat/Punjab/Maharashtra Regions to Rajasthan Region and their requests were accepted by the official respondents and they were transferred to the Rajasthan Region vide order dated 15.07.2016 and they joined their duties in Rajasthan Region on different dates in the month of August/October, 2016.

3. It was pleaded by the private respondents in their original application that a combined advertisement for recruitment on the post of Steno, Upper Division Clerk (for short ‘the UDC’) and MTS in Rajasthan Region was issued by the respondent No. 3-Regional Director, ESI Corporation, Jaipur, wherein the vacancies for the post of UDC were shown as 81 and the last date of submitting the applications was 06.01.2016. The examination for the post of UDC was conducted in the month of March, 2016. The petitioners were selected and given appointment in the month of December, 2017 and pursuant thereto all the petitioners joined the services on the post of UDC on 29.12.2017/01.01.2018.

4. Thereafter, the respondent No. 4-Deputy Director, (Administration) ESIC, Rajasthan published a draft seniority list on 26.06.2019 placing the petitioners above the private respondents in complete violation of IRT Policy dated 05.03.2013 and also in violation of the basic principles of Service Jurisprudence that the seniority cannot be conferred upon an employee who has not even borne in cadre. The private respondents joined the Rajasthan Region in pursuance of their transfer order dated 15.07.2016 in the month of August/October, 2016, whereas the petitioners were borne in the cadre only after joining on