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Krishan Kumar Madan & Ors. v. Ashok Kumar & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 759Decided 29 Aug 2018
Civil Appeal Nos. 8336-8337 of 2011
Chief Justice Dipak Misra · Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud · Justice Indira Banerjee

Background

After Uttar Pradesh was split to create Uttarakhand in 2000, several Personal Assistants who had been selected by the UP Public Service Commission but were appointed only in 2001 (after the cut-off "appointed day") opted to serve the new State of Uttarakhand and were allowed to join its Secretariat. Years later, other employees who had been transferred into the Uttarakhand Secretariat as stenographers challenged the seniority list, and the Uttarakhand High Court ultimately held that the appellants legally remained employees of Uttar Pradesh, not Uttarakhand, since the statutory reorganisation scheme did not cover them. The appellants challenged this before the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the High Court had overlooked a 13 September 2000 Central Government guideline which contemplated that candidates selected (but not yet appointed) before reorganisation could still be allotted to the successor state. It noted that the appellants' own appointment letters expressly stated their services could be allotted to either UP or Uttarakhand, and that their transfer to Uttarakhand had taken place with the mutual consent of both state governments, consistent with a 2004 Central Government circular permitting such consensual transfers. Finding no legal infirmity in this consensual transfer process, the Court set aside the High Court's judgment and allowed the appeals, holding the appellants to be validly absorbed as Uttarakhand employees.

Lesson Learnt

When states are reorganised, an employee's final posting can validly follow a mutual inter-government transfer arrangement even if the formal statutory allocation scheme's cut-off date does not technically cover them: courts will look at the substance of consent and appointment-letter terms, not just the bare statutory cut-off.

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

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