Seniority in uniformed services to be Determined by date of appointment: Delhi HC

New Delhi, Jan 10 : The Delhi High Court has clarified that in uniformed services seniority is determined by the date of appointment and not by the date of selection or merit position. A three-judge Bench comprising Justice C Hari Shankar, Justice Jyoti Singh and Justice Ajay Digpaul held that seniority must be determined strictly by the date of continuous regular appointment, as mandated under Rule 8(2) of the BSF General Duty Cadre (Non-Gazetted) Recruitment Rules, 2002.

The petitioners, selected through the same recruitment process, were initially declared medically unfit and appointed later after clearing Review Medical Examinations (RMEs). They sought seniority parity with batchmates who joined earlier. The Court rejected the claim, clarifying that Rule 8(3) (merit-based seniority) is subject to Rule 8(2) and applies only when appointments are made on the same date.

The Larger Bench emphasized that statutory rules must prevail and considerations of equity or hardship cannot override clear provisions. The Bench noted that the delay may not have been attributable to the petitioners and the same cannot affect the legal position.  The delay was likewise not attributable to the persons who joined earlier, the Bench said.

All petitions seeking backdated seniority were accordingly dismissed.

By order dated 25 February 2019, a Division Bench of the Court had referred these matters to a Larger Bench of three Judges, as the Division Bench felt that, on the issue in controversy in these writ petitions, different Division Benches of the Court had ruled differently.

The Larger Bench passed the verdict after hearing Ankur Chhibber, Counsel for the petitioners, and Farman Ali, Ripudaman Bharadwaj, Subhash Tanwar and Manish Mohan, CGSC for the respondents, at length.