Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Oct 27: In a landmark judgment, Supreme Court has held that seniority has to be reckoned only from the date the person entered into that service.
The issue that arises for determination in appeals before the Supreme Court was whether the private respondents, who are promotee Excise and Taxation Officers (ETOs) could be granted retrospective promotion from the dates when the vacancies occurred in the promotion quota.
A bench of Supreme Court comprising Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Deepak Gupta observed, “rules in question clearly provide that not only vacancies should have been existing from an earlier date but the person to be granted retrospective promotion should have also been working against the post”.
“To give an example in the context of the present rules, a vacancy in the promotional cadre existed on 01.01.10. However, a person from the feeder category is promoted on temporary/officiating/adhoc/or on any other basis to work against the post on 01.01.11. He is thereafter regularly appointed on 01.01.12. Though the vacancy may have existed from 01.01.10 the employee can get promotion only from 01.01.11 when he actually started working against the post”, the bench said.
“It is well settled that retrospective promotion to a particular group can violate Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution of India. Even if the rules enable the State to make retrospective promotion, such promotion cannot be granted at the cost of some other group. Therefore, the only reasonable interpretation can be that the promotees can get promotion from an anterior date only if they have worked against the post even if it be on temporary or officiating, or ad-hoc basis etc”, the Apex Court further said.
“On analysis of Rule 24 of the Civil Services Rules, it is apparent that the seniority of a person subject to the rules is to be determined by the date of first appointment to such service, class, category or grade, as the case may be. Therefore, it is apparent that only the service rendered in a particular service, class, category or grade can be taken into consideration and not the service rendered in some other service, class, category or grade while determining the seniority”, the court said, adding “note-1 to the rules also makes it clear that the date of first appointment shall mean the date of permanent appointment or the first appointment on probation on a clear vacancy”.
“On a combined reading of Rule 9 of the Excise Rules and Rule 23 and 24 of the Civil Services Rules, we are clearly of the view that promotion can be granted on retrospective basis to promotee officers from a date on which the clear-cut vacancy in the promotional cadre has occurred subject however to the conditions that the promotee should have worked against that post prior to his regular appointment”, the Supreme Court further said.
With these observations, Supreme Court set aside the judgment of the Division Bench dated 06.03.2014 and restored the judgment of the Single Judge dated 07.05.2013 whereby retrospective effect to the promotees from Inspector to ETO was quashed.
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