Jharkhand High Court: Seniority Can’t Be Claimed From A Prior Service After Voluntarily Changing Cadres
The Jharkhand High Court Dismisses Police Officers' Seniority Claim.
Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad, Justice Rajesh Kumar, Jharkhand High Court
The Jharkhand High Court rejected police officers' seniority appeal, holding that they can't claim seniority from a prior service due to voluntarily changing cadres.
The Court held that since the Appellants voluntarily chose to join the police service, they cannot claim seniority from the date of their initial appointment in a different service.
A Division Bench of Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad and Justice Rajesh Kumar noted, “The appellants/writ petitioners have applied and declared to be successful but based upon the merit had been allotted with the Jharkhand Administrative Service and gave their joining on 12.08.2010. The appellants/writ petitioners had been appointed and started discharging their duties under the said cadre”
Senior Advocate Ajit Kumar appeared for the Appellants, while Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan represented the Respondents.
Brief Facts
In 2007, the Appellants were selected for the Jharkhand Administrative Service but preferred the Police Service. After six Dy.S.P. posts became vacant, the State Government invited options from candidates with police preference, leading appellants to join the Jharkhand Police Service in 2012. Their subsequent claim for seniority from their initial 2010 appointment date in the Administrative Service was rejected.
Court’s Reasoning
The Court referred to Circular No. 15784 dated August 26, 1972, which states that if an officer is transferred from one service to another "on his own request, the service passed by him on previous post will not be reckoned for the purpose of seniority". However, "if such transfer is in accordance with the policy decision taken by the Government, then the services rendered by him on the previous post will be counted for seniority".
The Court concluded that the appellants' case was a "change in the service on their own option i.e., from Jharkhand Administrative Service to Jharkhand Police Service in the capacity of Dy.S.P.". It held that "it cannot be said that it was a policy decision by which appellants were bound to join police service therefore claim of the appellants does not come within the horizon of the Circular of 1972 since they picked willingly to shift their service because vacancies existed but right does not accrue in their favour for claiming their seniority from the date of initial appointment".
The Bench referred the precedent of the Supreme Court in State of Bihar v. Arbind Jee and Ganga Vishan Gujrati reiterating the principle that "retrospective seniority cannot be granted to an employee from a date when the employee was not borne on a cadre". It was further stated that "seniority amongst members of the same grade has to be counted from the date of initial entry into the grade".
The Court was of the "considered view that since learned Single Judge has meticulously examined the aforesaid issue by taking into consideration the settled position of law that regular service cannot be reckoned from a date when the employee was not even borne in the service and seniority amongst members has to be counted from the date of initial entry into the said service, requires no interference by this Court".
Consequently, the Court ordered, “Accordingly, this Court is of the view that the instant appeal lacks merit and as such, stands dismissed”
Accordingly, the High Court dismissed the Appeal.
Cause Title: Binod Kumar Mahto & Ors. v. The State of Jharkhand & Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2025:JHHC:14955-DB)
Appearance:
Appellants: Senior Advocate Ajit Kumar; Advocate Aprajita Bhardwaj
Respondents: Advocate General Rajiv Ranjan; AC Mohan Kr. Dubey and Shray Mishra; Advocates Rahul Kumar, Kumar Vaibhav, Durgesh Agarwal, Richa Lal, Saurav Arun, Ayushi, Shailesh Kr. Singh and Abhijeet Kumar
