Promotion in public service must adhere to seniority principles, and arbitrary actions undermining this principle are impermissible.

JUDGMENT :

Alok Mathur, J.

1. Heard Dr. Lalta Prasad Mishra, and Sri Jaideep Narain Mathur, Senior Advocate assisted by Sri Avinash Singh Vishen on behalf of the petitioners, Sri Kuldeep Pati Tripathi, learned Additional Advocate General for the State of U.P..

2. It has been submitted on behalf of petitioners that in pursuance of advertisement dated 11/01/2016 issued by the U.P Public Services Commission for appointment to various posts including the post of Naib-Tehsildar the petitioners had applied and appeared in the recruitment exam and were declared selected. In the select list prepared by the Public Service Commission the names of the petitioners find mention at serial No. 33, 35, 108, 115, 152 and 186 respectively. It has been submitted that the appointment letters to the petitioners were issued on the various dates between 03/09/2019 and 04/03/2021. It was submitted that the anomaly was committed by the State as appointment letters were issued randomly to the candidates whose documents stood verified. This resulted in issuance of appointment letters randomly permitting persons much lower in the select list prepared by the U.P Public Service Commission to join much prior to other candidates whose verification was completed subsequently. The petitioners duly joined on the post of Naib Tehsildar with much delay and after completion of the period of probation petitioner No.s 1, 3, 4, 5 and 6 were confirmed by order dated 20/04/2022 which was corrected on 05/09/2023 while petitioner No. 2 was confirmed by order dated 19/06/2023.

3. The respondents proceeded to prepare a gradation list of all the selected candidates on 18/09/2020 which did not include petitioners as they had joined the service between 03/07/2020 and 07/04/2021. It is submitted that subsequently on representation having been made by the petitioners the names were included.

4. In the meanwhile, before the petitioners had joined the services, the Board of Revenue, on the basis of the Seniority list prepared on 18/09/2020, sent a proposal to the State Government for relaxation of 6 months in qualifying service of the incumbents who had joined the service on or before 31/12/2019 as per the provisions of Rule 6 of Tehsildar Service Rules, 1966 (Second Amendment) 1999 and Rule 4 of Relaxation in Qualifying Service for Promotion Of Uttar Pradesh Government Servant Rules (1^st Amendment) rules, 2013 and the State Government duly granted the relaxation by its order dated 14/08/2023. It is relevant to note that the State Government while granting relaxation had imposed certain conditions and the most relevant for the present case being condition No. 4 which provided that the Board of Revenue will ensure that under no circumstance person who is junior be granted the relaxation in eligibility condition ignoring the claim of any person who is senior in any manner whereby the senior may be deprived of his being excluded due to eligibility condition. The Board of Revenue proceeded to promote 141 Naib Tehsildar to the post of Tehsildar by order dated 16/08/2023.

5. It has further been submitted that the new provisional Seniority list has been issued by the Board of Revenue on 28/12/2023 where the name of the petitioners finds mention in accordance with the select list prepared by the U.P Public Service Commission. Another proposal dated 10/11/2023 has been sent by Board of Revenue to the State Government for promotion to the post of Tehsildar after granting relaxation to the persons who had joined the service till 01/07/2020. The petitioners have not been included said proposal as they have joined after 01/07/2020. The Board of Revenue have proceeded to include even the members of 2017 batch for promotion, who were junior to the petitioners having been recruited in the subsequent recruitment year, without considering the claim of the petitioners, and when this fact came to the knowledge of the petitioners they have preferred the instant writ petition with the following prayers:-

“(a