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Vinod Giri Goswami & Ors. v. The State of Uttarakhand & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2020 INSC 193Decided 14 Feb 2020
Civil Appeal No. 1606 of 2020
Justice L. Nageswara Rao · Justice Deepak Gupta

Background

This case (and a batch of connected appeals) arose from a long-running seniority dispute between direct recruits and promotee Deputy Collectors in the newly formed State of Uttarakhand, following its 2000 split from Uttar Pradesh. Some officers had been promoted on an ad hoc basis in 2004, without following the proper selection procedure, and later regularised in 2007. The Uttarakhand High Court had ruled in favour of the promotees, allowing them to count their entire ad hoc service for seniority purposes, prompting the direct recruits and the State to appeal to the Supreme Court. A separate, related appeal challenged a 2015 government memorandum fixing the year-wise vacancy quota for direct recruits versus promotees.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that service rendered on an ad hoc basis, as a stopgap arrangement without following the prescribed selection procedure, cannot be counted towards seniority, distinguishing this from cases where only a minor procedural defect existed at the time of an otherwise-regular appointment. Since the promotees' 2004 appointments bypassed the required selection process entirely, the High Court erred in crediting them with seniority from that date. The Court also upheld the 2015 government memorandum's calculation of yearly vacancies in the promotee and direct-recruit quotas as correct. It accordingly allowed the appeals of the direct recruits and the State, and dismissed the promotees' separate appeal against the memorandum, finally resolving both the seniority list challenge and the related vacancy-quota dispute across all seven tagged batches of appeals.

Lesson Learnt

An ad hoc government appointment made without following the proper recruitment/selection procedure does not count towards seniority from its start date, only continuous service following substantially regular selection, with later procedural defects cured, can be credited that way.

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

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