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The Employees' State Insurance Corporation vs Union of India & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2022 INSC 77Decided 20 Jan 2022
Civil Appeal No. 152 of 2022
Dr. Dhananjaya Y. Chandrachud · A.S. Bopanna

Background

A group of doctors working as Assistant Professors at an ESIC medical college sought faster promotion to Associate Professor under the Central Government's "Dynamic Assured Career Progression" (DACP) Scheme, which allows promotion after just two years of service. ESIC, however, argued that its own statutory Recruitment Regulations (first from 2008, requiring four years' service, then from 2015, requiring five years) governed the promotions of its teaching staff, not the DACP Scheme, which was really meant for regular Central Health Service officers. A Tribunal and the Karnataka High Court had both ruled in favour of the doctors, partly because ESIC's own counsel had earlier and mistakenly conceded that the 2015 Regulations did not apply.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that statutory regulations framed by a body like ESIC under its enabling Act have the force of law and prevail over an executive instruction or office memorandum such as the DACP Scheme, which can only supplement, never override, a valid statutory rule. Since the ESIC Recruitment Regulations 2015 were shown (via their own preamble) to have been issued with the Central Government's prior approval as required by Section 17(2) of the ESI Act, they validly superseded the DACP Scheme for ESIC's teaching cadre. The Court also held that a mistaken concession of law made by counsel before a Tribunal does not bind the government body or estop it from later asserting the correct legal position, and that promises made in an employment advertisement cannot override the applicable service regulations. The Court set aside the High Court's judgment and directed that the seniority list of ESIC's teaching cadre reflect promotions calculated under the 2015 Regulations, not the DACP Scheme, while clarifying that the employees would not lose the benefit of pay fixation for their prior years of service.

Lesson Learnt

Where a government body's own binding regulations conflict with a general executive policy or scheme, the statutory regulations prevail; and a mistaken legal concession made by a lawyer in earlier proceedings does not permanently bind their client, especially a public authority, on a pure question of law.

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

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