Limited legal fiction for seniority and pension cannot alter retirement age under bank service rules

A legal fiction granting an ex-SSCO the benefit of a backdated date of entry for seniority, pay and pension could not be extended to determine retirement age. The Supreme Court held that Rule 6 of the 1971 Reservation of Vacancies Rules was confined to those limited service benefits, and the employee's service conditions beyond that purpose remained governed by the actual date of joining the Bank. On that basis, the retirement age under the Officers' Service Rules had to be calculated from actual entry into service, so the employee was not entitled to further extension beyond 58 years.

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Issues: Whether an ex-SSCO appointed in the State Bank of India after 19-7-1969 could claim extension of service beyond the age of 58 years by treating the backdated date given for seniority, pay and pension purposes as the date of entry into service.

Analysis: Rule 6 of the Emergency Commissioned Officers & Short Service Commissioned Officers (Reservation of Vacancies) Rules, 1971 gave the employee the benefit of earlier army service only for the limited purposes of seniority, pay and pension. The legal fiction created by that rule could not be enlarged to govern other service conditions. The Court held that a legal fiction must be confined to the purpose for which it is created, and the retirement age under Rule 19(1) of the State Bank of India Officers' Service Rules had to be determined with reference to the actual date of joining the Bank, not the notional backdated date used for limited service benefits.

Conclusion: The employee was not entitled to claim extension of service on the basis of the backdated notional date, and the Bank was not bound to consider him eligible for further extension after attaining 58 years.

Final Conclusion: The appeal succeeded and the High Court's orders were set aside, leaving the writ petition dismissed.

Ratio Decidendi: A legal fiction created for a limited statutory purpose cannot be extended to alter unrelated service conditions such as retirement age, which continues to be governed by the employee's actual date of entry into service.

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