Retrospective seniority under service rules requires express statutory basis; a later quota amendment will not displace valid direct recruits.

Retrospective seniority and notional promotion could not be claimed by promotee officers under the Arunachal Pradesh Forest Service Rules because the unamended Rule 5 governed filling of substantive vacancies and did not establish a fixed 50:50 cadre quota. The 50:50 quota was introduced only by the 24.9.1999 amendment, and nothing in the text made that change retrospective. Rule 25(c) tied inter se seniority to vacancy rotation under Rule 5, so it did not justify rearranging seniority for an earlier period. Seniority could not be assigned from dates when the officers were not borne in the cadre, and the direct recruits already validly in service could not be displaced.

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Issues: Whether the promotee officers were entitled to retrospective seniority and notional promotion over direct recruits on the basis of Rule 5 of the Arunachal Pradesh Forest Service Rules and whether the 1999 amendment introducing a 50:50 quota operated retrospectively.

Analysis: The unamended Rule 5 spoke only of filling the substantive vacancies occurring from time to time in the authorized permanent strength of the service and did not create a fixed 50:50 quota between direct recruits and promotees in the cadre strength. The 50:50 arrangement was introduced only by the amendment of 24.9.1999, and there was no express language making that amendment retrospective. Rule 25(c) also linked relative seniority to the rotation of vacancies based on the quota under Rule 5, which did not support a retrospective rearrangement of seniority. The appellants were not borne in the cadre on the dates from which they were assigned seniority, while the direct recruits had been validly working in the cadre in the meantime.

Conclusion: The claim for retrospective seniority and retrospective promotion was rejected. The direct recruits could not be displaced, and the respondents' seniority was upheld.

Ratio Decidendi: Seniority cannot be granted retrospectively from a date when an employee was not borne in the cadre, and an amendment creating a quota will not operate retrospectively unless the statute expressly so provides.

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