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Arjun Murmu vs. The State of Odisha & Ors. (with Radhamohan Hembram & Ors. vs. State of Odisha & Ors.)

Not available · 2022 INSC 1012Decided 23 Sept 2022
Not available
Indira Banerjee · C.T. Ravikumar

Background

Two groups of Assistant Section Officers (ASOs) in the Odisha Government Secretariat (one recruited under a special backlog drive for Scheduled Tribes, the other under the General Quota) disputed their inter-se seniority in a 2020 gradation list. A writ petition challenging the seniority fixation was filed and is still pending before a Single Judge of the Orissa High Court. Along the way, the Single Judge and then a Division Bench of the High Court passed a series of conflicting interim orders about whether promotions could be made from the disputed gradation list while the case was pending, culminating in an order dated 14.07.2021 that the appellants challenged before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court noted that the underlying writ petition on seniority was still pending before the Single Judge, so no issue had actually been finally decided by the High Court that would call for the Supreme Court's corrective jurisdiction under Article 136. It deliberately declined to comment on the merits of the seniority dispute itself. Instead, taking into account that many promotional posts were lying vacant purely because of the pending litigation, the Court disposed of the appeals by directing the Orissa High Court to decide the underlying writ petition within two months, and ordered that if that deadline is missed, the authorities may go ahead and fill the promotional vacancies from the disputed gradation list, but only on a provisional basis, subject to the writ petition's final outcome.

Lesson Learnt

The Supreme Court will often decline to rule on the substance of a dispute that is still pending before a lower court, and will instead craft a practical interim arrangement (here, provisional promotions subject to the final result) so that administrative functioning is not indefinitely paralysed by ongoing litigation.

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

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