Summary
Inter se seniority among Junior Engineers in Nagaland depends on the date each person entered the Junior Engineer cadre. Sectional Officers, Grade-I, whose posts were upgraded to Junior Engineer only on 11.10.2007 cannot rank above Junior Engineers directly recruited on 01.05.2003. The Court set aside the Division Bench and restored the seniority list of 26.03.2018.
Issues
- How inter se seniority is fixed between Junior Engineers directly recruited on 01.05.2003 and Sectional Officers, Grade-I, whose posts were upgraded to Junior Engineer on 11.10.2007.
- Whether the dates of the Sectional Officers' officiating or regularised promotion in the lower post, or the earlier history of upgradations, matter for seniority in the Junior Engineer cadre.
Provisions considered
- Recruitment to the post of Junior Engineer (90% direct recruitment, 10% promotion), Nagaland Engineering Service Rules, 1997The Court noted the Rules' quota, as stated at the hearing, and that the first direct recruitment under them took place in 2003. It held that the Division Bench went wrong by examining the Rules and the history of upgradations before 2003, since the only question was when each group entered the Junior Engineer cadre. Whether the upgradation itself was valid was not in issue. (¶¶ 9, 13)
Held
- Where a cadre is manned from two sources, seniority between them turns on the date each person became a member of that cadre. The direct recruits joined the Junior Engineer cadre on 01.05.2003. The respondents joined it only when their Sectional Officer, Grade-I, posts were upgraded on 11.10.2007. (¶¶ 8, 13, 15)
- The respondents' officiating promotion as Sectional Officer, Grade-I, its regularisation by office order dated 31.03.2007 with effect from the DPC of 16.03.2007, and any earlier officiating service have no bearing on seniority among Junior Engineers. That was service in a lower, non-gazetted post on a lower pay scale (Rs. 4500-7000 against Rs. 6000-9750). (¶¶ 14, 15)
- Seniority lists and upgradations from before the first direct recruitment in 2003 were irrelevant, because until then the cadre was never filled from two sources. The dispute concerned only posts upgraded on 11.10.2007, not posts upgraded before 01.05.2003. (¶¶ 9, 13, 15)
- The Division Bench committed a clear error by giving the upgraded Sectional Officers seniority in the Junior Engineer cadre from a date before they were even born into it. The Single Judge had rightly dismissed the writ petitions and upheld the seniority list. (¶¶ 12, 15)
Result
Appeals allowed. The Division Bench judgment of 09.09.2021 in W.A. No. 4 of 2020 was set aside and the final seniority list of Junior Engineers circulated on 26.03.2018 was upheld. No order as to costs.