Seniority for recruits should be determined by the recruitment board's merit panel and applicable service manuals, particularly when internal administrative admissions acknowledge that previous training-based seniority fixation was erroneous.

ORDER (ORAL):

Hon’ble Dr. Anand S Khati, Member (A):

In the present Original Application, filed under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985, the applicant has prayed for the following reliefs:

“(i) That the Hon'ble Tribunal may graciously be pleased to pass an order directing the respondents to finalize the seniority to the post of JE (TRD) of Moradabad Division by taking into account their own letter dated 12.08.2024 by fixing the seniority of the applicant and on the basis of panel issued by the Railway Recruitment Board.

(ii) That the Hon'ble Tribunal may graciously be pleased to pass an order of quashing the impugned seniority list dated 03.02.2017 declaring to the effect that the same is illegal and arbitrary and consequently, pass an order to the effect that the applicant is entitled to all the consequential benefits.

(iii) Any other relief which the Hon'ble Tribunal deem fit and proper may also be granted to the applicant.”

Learned counsel for the applicants submits that the applicant was initially appointed to the post of Junior Engineer/TRD through the Railway Recruitment Board with effect from 07.08.2013 and was subsequently promoted to the post of Section Engineer in the year 2018. He further submits that as per the merit/panel issued by the RRB, the applicant’s name figured at Sl. No. 2. He submits that the applicant and other selected candidates were deputed for training at different institutes in a random manner, without adhering to the order of merit as reflected in the select panel. Learned counsel submits that the competent authority, vide letter dated 01.07.2016, issued a seniority list of JE/TRD wherein the applicant was placed at Sl. No. 2. However, on 03.02.2017, the respondents issued another seniority list in which the applicant was arbitrarily relegated to Sl. No. 29. Aggrieved thereby, the applicant submitted representations before the competent authority. Upon consideration of the same, the competent authority sought clarifications from the Northern Railway Headquarters regarding fixation of seniority of JE/TRD of the 2013 batch, vide letters dated 11.04.2023 and 16.08.2023. However, the Northern Railway Headquarters, vide the impugned order dated 04.10.2023 (Annexure A-1), merely advised the Division to decide the representations of the employees in accordance with the instructions contained in para 303 of the Indian Railway Establishment Manual (IREM).

Learned counsel for the applicant has also drawn our attention to the internal communication by the Sr. Divisional Electrical Engineer/TRD, NR, Moradabad to Sr. Divisional Personnel Officer, NR, Moradabad dated 12.08.2024 on the subject regarding fixation of seniority of JE/TRD selected through RRB (in August 2023), which reads as under:

“C. The methodology adopted for deciding the provisional seniority was not in accordance with rules laid down in IREM Chapter 3(a). Therefore, seniority needs to be framed again.

The IREM chapter 3(a) reproduced below-

➤ As the candidates were not sent for training as per their RRB seniority but sent in batches due to administrative reasons therefore their inter se seniority will be regulated batch wise. For inter se seniority the candidates were not sent in appropriate batch (as per seniority of RRB panel) will be clubbed together with candidates, sent in appropriate batch.

➤ The training of candidates was conducted in a haphazard manner. Therefore, all the candidates will be clubbed together provided they have passed training examination in the first attempt. Now whoever candidate has passed training examination in the first attempt has to be placed in seniority as per the RRB examination seniority.

➤ Training examination marks cannot be considered for inter se seniority as the candidates were not sent for training as per their RRB seniority due to administrative reasons

➤ Additionally, the only training common with all candidates is TRD which was conducted in two different training institu