GYAN SINGH Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition is directed against the order dtd. 3/2/2021, passed by the Central Administrative Tribunal [in short 'the Tribunal'] in O.A. No.4016/2016.

(2.) The principal litigating parties are two sets of employees who work for respondent no. 2 i.e., Prasar Bharati. The petitioners represent one set while respondent nos. 4 and 5 represent another set of employees. The remaining parties are the official respondents. The petitioners belong to the reserved categories i.e., Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) while respondent nos.4 and 5 belong to the Unreserved (UR) category. [For the sake of brevity, wherever required, the petitioners as also respondent nos. 4 and 5 will be collectively referred to as "employees", unless the context requires otherwise.]

(3.) The core issue which arises for consideration is: whether the petitioners should get the benefit of consequential seniority on having been promoted to the post of Cameraman Grade-I, having regard to the fact that most of them were promoted to the said post on date(s) earlier to respondent nos. 4 and 5. 3.1. This issue arises in the backdrop of an accepted position that respondent nos. 4 and 5 were appointed to the feeder post [i.e., the post of Cameraman Grade-II] earlier in point of time than the petitioners. 3.2. The Tribunal, via the impugned judgment, has ruled in favour of respondent nos. 4 and 5 by applying the "catch-up rule". Being aggrieved, the petitioners have approached this court and assailed the impugned order of the Tribunal, on various grounds. Background:-