The tribunal upheld the legality of the final Seniority List of Staff Nurses under the I.R.T. Policy-2013, affirming adherence to seniority principles which dictated the placement of transferees in accordance with the rules established.

ORDER

Per : Hon’ble Shri Lok Ranjan, Member (A)

The present Original Application had been filed against the final Seniority List of Staff Nurse in Nursing Cadre of Rajasthan Region of the Respondent Organization, the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (E.S.I.C.) issued by the Regional Director, E.S.I.C. Rajasthan, Jaipur, i.e. official Respondent No.3 vide Memo dated 07.09.2020 – wherein the private Respondents had been shown as senior to the Applicants after inter-region transfer (I.R.T.) of nursing/para- medical staff of E.S.I.C.

2. Based on the pleadings of the parties on record, the relevant matrix of facts had emerged to be as follows briefly. The Applicants had joined the E.S.I.C. as Staff Nurse on various dates from 10.06.2008 to 27.06.2009 at its different Regions, similar to the private Respondents in the present O.A. The Nursing Cadre employees of E.S.I.C., inter alia the Applicants as well as the private Respondents, had applied for I.R.T. after completion of the requisite period of service as per the provisions of the extant Inter Region Transfer Policy for Nursing/Para Medical Staff of E.S.I.C. dated 27.02.2013 (I.R.T. Policy-2013). After receiving the said applications, the competent authority approved the I.R.T. vide Office Order No.130 of 2013 dated 08.03.2013(Approval Order-2013) in accordance with the I.R.T. Policy-2013. Therein,84 namesfor Rajasthan Region were included amongst302 total transferee employees of Nursing Cadre under E.S.I.C., arranged Region-wise in the Order of the respective dates of appointment. SuchI.R.T.s had been approved subject to conditions inter alia – that the officials will be relieved only when the place of posting is decided and communicated from the concernedAppointing Authority where they were to be transferred ; that the relief of the officials will take place after the joining of new incumbents or as per administrative convenience of the Appointing Authority ; and that in cases of posting to Rajasthan Region specifically, the transfer order will be executed only when demand is raised by the concerned Medical Superintendent.Nonetheless, from 2013 onwards, the E.S.I.C. Headquarters/Office of official Respondent No.2 itself – purportedly through V.I.P. Orders with the approval of the Competent Authority – had transferred the private Respondentsto Rajasthan Region of E.S.I.C. The names of some of the private Respondents had figured in the Approval Order- 2013,while the others had been from outside that order.Eventually, vide Office Order No.53(E) of 2016 dated 23.09.2016 (Transfer Order-2016), the Medical Superintendent of E.S.I.C. Model Hospital, Jaipur had decided and communicated the place of posting of 26 I.R.T. transferees approved previously vide Approval Order-2013. Those employees, including also the Applicants herein, were advised to get relieved from their posts/place of posting and join in the post/place of posting to which they had been transferred thereby.Accordingly, the Applicants also had joined on various dates thereafter in the E.S.I.C. Rajasthan Region at the posts/place of posting shown for them.

3. Subsequently, the official Respondent No.3 had issued a provisional Seniority List dated 16/22.02.2019, of the post of Staff Nurse in Nursing Cadre of Rajasthan E.S.I.C. Region for the period from 2013 to 2017. The names of the Applicants were placed in the Seniority Listof year 2016-17, whereas the names of the private Respondents had been included on the basis of their joining dates on I.