Manohar Lal Jat & Ors. v. The State of Rajasthan & Ors.
Background
In 2010-11, Rajasthan's Commercial Taxes Department created 554 new posts of Tax Assistant, to be filled 80% by direct recruits (DRs) and 20% by departmental promotees (DPs) from existing ministerial staff. Advertisements for the two streams were issued on different dates and processed on different timelines; because the DPs required no typing test, police verification or medical exam, they received their appointment letters on 23.06.2011: about two weeks before the DRs, even though the DR selection process had actually started earlier. When a seniority list placed DPs above DRs based on date of appointment, the DRs (including the appellants) challenged it, arguing a proviso to the governing recruitment rule should make those selected earlier rank senior regardless of appointment date.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court held that this was the very first recruitment drive to fill an entirely new cadre, conducted as one composite exercise even though split across two advertisements for administrative reasons (different eligibility criteria for DRs and DPs). The proviso relied upon by the DRs, which gives earlier-selected candidates seniority over later-selected ones, was held to apply only within the same recruitment stream (i.e., among DRs inter se or among DPs inter se), not between different categories of recruits. The main rule, that seniority follows date of appointment, therefore governed, and the delay in issuing DR appointment letters (due to the volume of police verification needed for a much larger batch) was a legitimate administrative reason, not manipulation. The appeals were dismissed and the Division Bench's ruling upheld.
Lesson Learnt
In government recruitment, seniority rules that favor "earlier selection" typically apply only to people recruited through the same channel (e.g., comparing two batches of direct recruits), not across different recruitment categories: ordinarily the date of actual appointment governs seniority between direct recruits and promotees recruited together to a newly created cadre.