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M.M. Thomas & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors.

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal Nos. 5300-5301 of 2017)Decided 17 Apr 2017
Civil Appeal Nos. 5300-5301 of 2017
Justice S.A. Bobde · Justice L. Nageswara Rao

Background

The appellants were Social Security Assistants with the Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) who had been transferred from the Karnataka/Tamil Nadu region to the Kerala region. When a promotion exam was held for the post of Enforcement Officer/Accounts Officer, rival candidates objected to the appellants' inclusion in the rank list, arguing they lacked five years' regular service specifically "in" the Kerala region. The Central Administrative Tribunal and the Kerala High Court both agreed and excluded the appellants from the promotion list.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the promotion rule's requirement of five years' regular service "in the respective regions" meant total service across all regions an employee had worked in, not five years specifically in the region where promotion was sought. Since EPFO is an All India Service where officers are routinely transferred between regions, reading the rule to require five years in the current region alone would unfairly strip transferred employees of their accumulated experience. Relying on the appellants' own transfer order (which preserved their past service for promotion purposes) and prior Supreme Court precedent on similar transfer situations, the Court held the appellants were eligible and set aside the Tribunal's and High Court's orders.

Lesson Learnt

When a service rule requires a certain number of years "in the respective region(s)" for promotion, an employee's service in an earlier region normally counts toward that total: a transfer should not erase accumulated seniority or experience built up elsewhere in the same cadre.

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

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