HC strikes down 2015 list of HCS officers’ seniority

CHANDIGARH: In an order with huge ramifications on the seniority of Haryana Civil Service (executive cadre) officers, the Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday upheld the seniority list finalized by the state on December 12, 2006.
With this, the seniority list redrawn in 2015 by the Haryana government after an order passed by a single bench of the high court in April 2015, has been struck down.The seniority list of 32 HCS officers sent by the Haryana government in May 2015 to the UPSC for elevation to the IAS has also become null and void after Thursday’s order. These officers were to be considered for 32 posts of IAS under the selection lists of 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016.
The division bench comprising Justice A B Chaudhari and Justice Kuldip Singh passed the order while disposing of an appeal filed against the April 1, 2015 judgment passed by a single bench. The appeal was filed by Virender Singh Hooda and other HCS officers.
In its 2015 order, the single bench headed by Justice Rajiv Narain Raina had directed the Haryana government to redraw the 2006 list keeping in view the amended Rule 20 of the Punjab Civil Service (executive branch) 1930 as applicable to Haryana with seniority assigned from the respective dates of actual appointments to the HCS. Justice Raina’s order was passed on the petition filed by Kulwant Kumar Kalson and others challenging the assignment of seniority of officers in three cycles of direct recruitment among themselves.
Nine HCS officers Virender Hooda, Dinesh Yadav, Amarjit Maan, Sujan Singh, Ashok Garg, Ajay Malik, Arvind Malhan, Pushpender Singh and Pradeep Godara would benefit from the Thursday order.
The dispute pertains to inter se seniority between officers of HCS (executive branch) selected in different batches of 1992, 1997, 1999, and special recruitment batch of 1994.
Explaining the issue, the counsel for the petitioners, advocate Inderpal Goyat said the main dispute was whether seniority for these HCS officers would be determined from the date of actual appointments or from the date when the officers were “fitted” along with the batch of their selection because of the Supreme Court order in VS Hooda case passed in 1999.
According to Goyat, the apex court has already explained in the 1999 VS Hooda case that those appointed to the HCS posts within six months of the date of subsequent advertisement shall be “fitted” to the posts ranking below those who had been selected at the time of recruitment of earlier advertisement in the same year.
The single bench headed by Justice Raina, however, had held in its April 2015 order that the seniority would be counted from the date when the officers were appointed for first time to the HCS cadre.
Reversing Justice Raina’s orders, the HC division bench has now held that seniority would be counted from the date the officers were fitted along with their batch of selection in accordance with the 1999 judgment of apex court.
“Admittedly, seniority has to be determined from the date of appointment. However, when there are specific orders regarding fitment of persons of a particular batch, in which they were selected, and courts make an exception for reasoning mentioned in the judgment, the judgment will prevail being an exception to rule,” the HC held in its order released on Thursday.