The seniority of absorbed employees is governed by the specific terms of the absorption policy; employees who accept these terms without protest are estopped from claiming seniority from their original contractual appointment, and seniority cannot override eligibility conditions prescribed by statutory service rules.

Order on Board

1. The petitioners have filed this petition seeking following relief (s) :

“10.1 That, the Hon'ble Court may kindly be pleased to direct the respondent to quash the impugned order dated 14.01.2022 & 22.01.2022 (Annexure P/1 & P/2) passed by respondent no.03 which relates to the providing seniority from the date of transfer from the date of joining of the transfer place one district to another district Inter-District.

10.2 That, the Respondent may also be directed to consider the name of the Petitioners as well as his seniority from the date of his appointment and accordingly consider his name for next promotion post.

10.3 Any other relief which this Hon'ble Court may deem fit and proper may also be passed in favor of the petitioners. An Affidavit in support is filed here with.”

2. In the present petition, the petitioners have prayed for issuance of direction to the respondents to consider seniority of the petitioners from the date of initial date of appointment/joining on the post of Shiksha Karmi Grade- III, II & I and also prayed for issuance of direction to prepare gradation list from initial date of appointment as Shiksha Karmi Grade-III. The petitioners have further prayed for promotion after adding the seniority from initial date of appointment.

3. The State has filed their return in which they have stated that the Government of Chhattisgarh has taken a policy decision on 30.06.2018 absorbing all the Shiksha Karmi Grade-III, II & I. The relevant clause of the absorption order is extracted below:-

“Lakfofy;u dh lsok ’krsZ fuEukuqlkj gSa &

1- lafofy;u fd; s x;s f’k{kd ¼ia-@ua-fu-½ laoxZ Ldwy f’k{kk foHkkx esa f’k{kd ¼,y-ch-½ laoxZ ds uke ls tkus tk;saxsA

2- Ldwy f’k{kk foHkkx varxZr iwoZ l s lapkfyr ’kkykvks a esa tgk¡ bZ&laoxZ ds f’k{kd inLFk gSa] mu ’kkykvks a es inLFk f’k{kd ¼ia- @ua-fu-½ laoxZ] uohu uke f’k{kd bZ ¼,y-ch-½ laoxZ ds rFkk tgk¡ Vh&laoxZ ds f’k{kd inLFk gSa] mu ’kkykvks a e s inLFk f’k{kd ¼ia- @ua-fu-½ laoxZ] uohu uke f’k{kd Vh ¼,y-ch-½ laoxZ ds varxZr gksaxs ,oa budk dSMj i`Fkd&i`Fkd gksxkA

3- f’k{kd ¼,y-ch-½ laoxZ dks fnukad 01 tqykbZ 2018 l s 7 osa osru vk;ksx dh jkT; ’kklu }kjk le;≤ ij Lohd`r vuq’kalkvksa ds vuq#i osru ,oa vU; lqfo/kk,a ns; gksxhA

4- f’k{kd ¼,y-ch-½ laoxZ dks ns; leLr ykHk ds fy;s lsok dh x.kuk lafofy;u fnukad 01 tqykbZ 2018 ls dh tk;sxhA

5- fnukad 01 tqykbZ 2018 ds iwoZ dh vof/k d s fy;s fdlh Hkh izdkj ds ,fj;lZ dh ik=rk ugha gksxhA

6- f’k{kd ¼,y-ch-½ laoxZ dks uohu va’knk;h is’ku ;kstuk dh ik=rk gksxhA

7- f’k{kd ¼,y-ch-½ laoxZ dh HkrhZ] inksUufr ,oa lsok fu;e Ldwy f’k{kk foHkkx }kjk i`Fkd ls cuk, tkdj vf/klwfpr fd;s tk;saxsA

8- fdlh Hkh vU; foHkkx ds lsok ,o a HkrhZ fu;eks a esa ;fn bl vkns’k ds varxZr fufeZr fu;eks a ls vlaxr dksbZ fu;e vFkok izko/kku gks] rks o s fu;e ;k izko/kku bl vkns’k ds izko/kkuks a dh lhek rd la’kksf/kr eku s tk,xsaA lacaf/kr foHkkx bl vkns’k ds izko/kkuksa ls laxr vuqdwyu vkns’k vius lsok HkrhZ esa ;FkkfLFkfr vfoyac ’kkfey djk,xkA

9- f’k{kd ¼ia-@u-fu-½ laoxZ ds tkjh fu;qfDr vkns’k ds fo#) ;fn fdlh U;k;ky; es a izdj.k fopkjk/khu gS] rks mudk lafofy;u U;k;ky;hu fu.kZ; ds v/;k/khu jgsxkA

;g vkns’k rRdky izHkko’khy gksxkA

4. The State to implement the policy decision of absorption has further issued order on 06.07.2018 and also issued circular on 04.02.2022 fixing the seniority of Shiksha Karmis, who have been transferred from one Block to another Block or one District to another District. Clause 7 of the circular provides that the seniority of the transferred Shiksha Karmis should be counted from their date of joining on place of transfer. As such, the petitioners are not entitled to get seniority from their first date of