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Dharmendra Prasad & Ors. v. Sunil Kumar & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2019 INSC 1332Decided 6 Dec 2019
Civil Appeal No. 9247 of 2019
Justice L. Nageswara Rao · Justice Hemant Gupta

Background

The Uttarakhand Jal Nigam advertised posts of Junior Engineer in 2004, conducted a written test and interview, and issued appointment letters in batches between May and December 2005, with the seniority question deliberately left to be decided later. Candidates who ranked lower in merit but were appointed earlier (due to the staggered, category-wise issuance of orders) got a seniority list in their favour in 2014, which the Uttarakhand High Court upheld by ruling that seniority must follow date of appointment, not merit. The candidates who scored higher in merit but were appointed later then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that giving earlier appointment letters to lower-merit candidates was a mere "fortuitous circumstance" arising from the Nigam's own staggered, category-wise appointment process, and that Regulation 23 (seniority by date of appointment) must be read together with Regulation 20, which requires appointments to follow the merit list. The Court also held that the Government's 100-point reservation roster (circular dated 31 August 2001) was binding under Regulation 6 and had not been properly applied. It set aside both the High Court's judgment and the 2014 seniority list, and directed the Nigam to recast seniority strictly by merit, applying the correct reservation roster.

Lesson Learnt

When seniority rules exist alongside merit-based and roster-based appointment rules, the date an appointment letter happens to be issued cannot override the governing regulations, all applicable service rules must be read together, and irregularities in how appointment letters were staggered cannot be used to "jump" seniority ahead of more meritorious candidates.

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

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