IMPORTANT POINT
Seniority is an incidence of service and where the service rules prescribe the method of its computation, it is squarely governed by such rules. In the absence of a provision ordinarily the length of service is taken into account.

JUDGMENT

Ganguly, J.

1. This appeal has been preferred from the final judgment and order passed by the High Court of Madhya Pradesh at Jabalpur in Writ Petition No.5238 of 2000 dated 30th June, 2003.

2. The facts and circumstances giving rise to this appeal are that in the year 1983, the first batch of the Specialist Medical Officer (SMO) in the Ordnance Factories Organization was recruited in the category of Obstetrics, Gynecology, Medicine and Surgery. The appellant was one of the five recruited persons and he belonged to the category of Surgery.

3. In the year 1991, on the recommendation of the Fourth Pay Commission, one post in the Indian Ordnance Factories Health Services (Group A, grade of Rs.5900-6700) was sanctioned for filling up amongst the SMOs cadre. The specialists cadre was in different disciplines and hence, there was necessity of preparing a combined gradation list in the SMOs cadre. The respondent No.1 referred the matter to the UPSC for preparation of the common seniority list. Further, the SMOs were recommended by the UPSC by three different lists, two of which were made on the same date and therefore the UPSC was requested to furnish the relative order of seniority of those SMOs who are recommended on the same date.

4. Accordingly, the seniority list of SMOs in the grade of Rs.4500-5700/- was prepared on 1.7.1992 and published vide order dated 21.8.1992. In the seniority list respondent Nos. 4, 5 and 6 were placed above the appellant.

5. As the appellant felt aggrieved by the publication of the said seniority list, he made representations in the year 1992, 1993 and 1995 before the respondent No.1. However, no reply was received by the appellant from the respondent No.1.

6. Being aggrieved, the appellant preferred an original application (O.A.No.457 of 1995) before the Central Administrative Tribunal, Jabalpur Bench (‘the Tribunal’) and prayed to quash the said seniority list and also for maintenance of discipline wise seniority list initially prepared by the UPSC and for keeping Confidential Reports as criteria for selection to the next higher grade and also to rearrange the seniority of the candidates on the basis of age of candidates by placing the oldest candidate on top of the seniority list followed by juniors in age. The appellant contended, inter alia, before the Tribunal that the:

a) The relative seniority of SMOs was not determined by UPSC, at the time of selection

b) The Department should have requested the UPSC to recommend candidates for such posts on the basis of a consolidated order of merit and not subject wise

c) The Department never requested the UPSC to prepare a combined seniority list as per merit on the basis of performance in the interview. It was therefore not possible for the UPSC to prepare a combined seniority list in the year 1992.

7. The UPSC before the Tribunal contended, inter alia, that the interview for different disciplines viz specialists I medicine, surgery and gynecology in Ordnance Factories Organization were conducted on different dates. Before the Tribunal UPSC further contended that:

(i) As far as the Specialist (Obstetrics and Gynecologist) is concerned the date of advertisement was 13.11.1982, date of interview was 28.2.1983 and date of UPSC recommendation letter was 16.3.1983.

(ii) Insofar as the Specialist (Medicine) is concerned the date of advertisement was 6.11.1983, date of interview was 15/16.03.1983 and date of UPSC recommendation letter was 14.4.1983.

(iii) And so far as the Specialist (Surgery) is concerned, the date of advertisement was 13.11.1982, date of interview was 22/24.03.1983 and date of UPSC recommendation letter was 14.4.1983.

8. The UPSC also filed the extracts of its file which contain the note sheets from Page 2 to Page 13. From those extracts the basis of arriving at the methodology adopted for fixing the seniority of two different disciplines, whose recommendations were made on the same date were available.

9. By a judgment and order dated 26.7.2