SOHAN LAL Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this writ petition, the following question of law arises for consideration : "Whether the services rendered by a person on ad hoc basis before his regular appointment to a cadre in a civil service counts for the purposes of seniority -.

(2.) THE brief facts which have given rise to the above question of law are these. The petitioner had been appointed as a Sub -Inspector in the Food and Supplies Department of the State of Haryana on ad hoc basis on April 16, 1969. Originally it was only for a period of six months. Subsequently, he was allowed to continue from time to time till June 27, 1972. Again he was appointed on ad hoc basis by an order made by the Director on April 5, 1973 and he continued till September 30, 1973. He was regularly recruited to the post on April 18, 1974. As stated in paragraph 2, in the merit list, prepared by the Subordinate Service Selection Board he was at serial Number 96 out of 115 candidates arranged according to merit. In this writ petition, he seeks for the writ of mandamus to the respondents to count his previous ad hoc service inter alia for the purpose of seniority. It is in these circumstances, that the question arises for consideration.

(3.) IN the first instance, we wish to refer to the statutory rules regulating the fixation of seniority. The rules are the Haryana Food and Supplies Department Sub -Officers (Group V) Services Rules, 1982 (hereinafter called the Rules). Rule 11 is the relevant rule providing for seniority. It reads " Seniority, inter se of member of the service shall be determined by the length of continuous service on any post in the service; Provided that where there are different cadres in the Service, the seniority shall be determined separately for each cadre; Provided further that in the case of members appointed by direct recruitment, the order of merit determined by that Board shall not be disturbed in fixing seniority; Provided further that in case of two or more members appointed on the same date, their seniority shall be determined as follows : - (a) a member appointed by direct recruitment shall be senior to a member appointed by promotion or by transfer; (b) a member appointed by promotion shall be senior to member appointed by transfer; (c) in the case of members appointed by promotion or by transfer seniority shall be determined according to the seniority of such members in the appointments from which they were promoted or transferred; and (d) in the case of members appointed by the transfer from different cadres, their seniority shall be determined according to pay preference being given to a member who was drawing a higher rate of pay in his previous appointment, and if the rates of pay drawn are also same, then by the length of service in the appointment and if the length of service in the appointment and if the length of service is also the same the older member shall be senior to the younger member." According to the above rule, the seniority of a member of the service has to be counted by the length of continuous service on any post in the service. According to the second proviso, in the case of a member of appointed by direct recruitment, the merit determined by the Board shall not be disturbed in fixing seniority.