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Director General, Central Reserve Police Force v. Cpl. Sunil Singh

Civil Appeal · 2017 INSC 794Decided 23 Aug 2017
Civil Appeal No. 10800 of 2017
Justice Madan B. Lokur · Justice Deepak Gupta

Background

Two Air Force Airmen (Cpl. Sunil Singh and Cpl. B.S. Siddha) applied for the civil post of Assistant Commandant in the CRPF without first obtaining the required permission from their superiors and before completing the mandatory 7 years of Air Force service. They were selected, and after a dispute over release, the High Court allowed them to join the CRPF on compassionate grounds but also directed that their seniority be reckoned from the date of their batch (i.e., as if they had been eligible all along). The CRPF appealed only against this seniority portion of the High Court's ruling.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that while it would not disturb the High Court's compassionate decision to let the two men join the CRPF despite their ineligibility at the time of application, it could not accept that they be given seniority as though they had applied validly. The Court reasoned that since both men were indisputably ineligible (not having completed 7 years' service, and one not even having sought permission) when they applied, they could not be rewarded with seniority dating back to a time when they had no legal entitlement to even apply. The appeals were allowed to the extent that their seniority would instead be fixed as the senior-most in the batch in which they actually underwent training, not from their original selection batch.

Lesson Learnt

Being allowed to join a post on compassionate or equitable grounds despite an earlier ineligibility does not automatically entitle a person to seniority benefits as if they had always been eligible: seniority follows actual eligibility, not sympathy.

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

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