Quota-based seniority in higher service grades runs from regular officiating appointment, not later confirmation, under sanctioned cadre rules.

Senior service rank in a higher engineering grade was linked to regular officiating promotion within the lawful quota, not to later confirmation. The Court distinguished promotion from confirmation and held that once Assistant Engineers were regularly appointed to officiate as Executive Engineers within quota, seniority in the higher grade ran from that officiating appointment, subject to the stated reservation for officers promoted before confirmation in the lower class. It further held that the quota rule applied when vacancies were first filled by officiating appointments and covered vacancies in both permanent and temporary posts within the sanctioned cadre, excluding only fortuitous vacancies. The revised seniority had therefore to be prepared on that basis, with excess appointments adjusted against later quota years.

---

---

Issues: (i) Whether the seniority of Assistant Engineers regularly appointed to officiate as Executive Engineers within quota was to be counted from the date of such officiating appointment or only from confirmation; (ii) whether the quota rule under the recruitment rules operated at the stage of initial officiating recruitment to the grade of Executive Engineer, and whether it applied only to permanent vacancies or also to temporary vacancies in the sanctioned cadre.

Issue (i): Whether the seniority of Assistant Engineers regularly appointed to officiate as Executive Engineers within quota was to be counted from the date of such officiating appointment or only from confirmation.

Analysis: The seniority dispute arose in the absence of statutory seniority rules and had to be resolved on the recruitment rules and governing administrative instructions. The Court distinguished promotion from confirmation and held that officiating promotion to the grade of Executive Engineer was a substantive step in service in that grade, while confirmation was a later process based on different considerations. The service records and manual provisions showed that officiating service in the grade counted for future promotional eligibility, and that seniority for confirmation itself was linked to the post in which confirmation was to take place. Once Assistant Engineers were regularly promoted to officiate as Executive Engineers within their lawful quota, their earlier service did not lose its significance merely because confirmation occurred later.

Conclusion: Seniority in Grade I was to be counted from the date of initial officiating appointment within quota, not from the date of later confirmation, subject to the stated reservation that an Assistant Engineer promoted before confirmation in Class II would count seniority only from confirmation in Class II.

Issue (ii): Whether the quota rule under the recruitment rules operated at the stage of initial officiating recruitment to the grade of Executive Engineer, and whether it applied only to permanent vacancies or also to temporary vacancies in the sanctioned cadre.

Analysis: The last paragraph of the recruitment rule governing vacancies in the grade of Executive Engineer was construed as applying when appointments were first made to officiate in that grade. The Court rejected the view that the quota could be worked out only at confirmation. It held that vacancies in the grade included vacancies in both permanent and temporary posts forming part of the sanctioned cadre, excluding only fortuitous or adventitious vacancies. The absence of available candidates from one source did not suspend the operation of the quota for the other source. Any excess appointments beyond quota could be adjusted by pushing them to later years for regularisation within lawful quota.

Conclusion: The quota rule operated at the stage of initial officiating appointment and extended to vacancies in both permanent and temporary posts within the sanctioned cadre.

Final Conclusion: The impugned seniority list could not stand, and the revised seniority had to be prepared on the basis that regular officiating promotion within quota fixed seniority from the date of such officiating appointment, with excess appointments being adjusted against later quota years.

Ratio Decidendi: Where recruitment to a higher grade is from multiple sources under a quota system, seniority follows the date of regular officiating appointment within quota, and the quota is worked at the stage of filling vacancies in the sanctioned cadre rather than at the stage of confirmation.

---