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APSRTC & Ors. v. A. Sanjeev Reddy

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 1174Decided 7 Dec 2018
Civil Appeal No. 12247 of 2018
Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud · Justice M.R. Shah

Background

A contract conductor working for APSRTC in Nizamabad district was terminated after a departmental enquiry; his departmental appeal was dismissed, but in a later departmental review the Regional Manager re-engaged him on contract. After re-engagement, he went to the High Court seeking continuity of service (and consequential benefits) covering the gap between his original termination and re-engagement. The Single Judge, relying solely on an unrelated earlier batch decision concerning differently-placed workers, granted this; a Division Bench affirmed it.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court, in materially identical terms to its companion APSRTC cases decided the same day, held that the Single Judge had mechanically applied directions meant for a batch of workers in different circumstances (several terminated without any enquiry) without examining that here a full enquiry had actually proved the misconduct and had never been challenged. It reiterated that continuity of service cannot be granted unless the termination order itself is set aside, and that neither the termination nor the fresh re-engagement had been put in issue here. The appeal was allowed, both High Court orders were set aside, and the employee's seniority was directed to run only from the date of his fresh contractual appointment.

Lesson Learnt

An employee's seniority and service benefits run from the date of a fresh appointment, not from an earlier terminated spell of service, unless the termination itself was legally challenged and set aside; relief crafted for one batch of workers cannot be mechanically extended to another without examining each person's own facts.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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