Quota-rota seniority breaks down when recruitment deviates persistently, protecting earlier regular promotees from being displaced.

Quota-rota seniority under the 1964 Rules depends on faithful adherence to the prescribed recruitment sources; where there is prolonged and substantial deviation, mechanical rotation becomes arbitrary and cannot displace officers who were earlier regularly promoted and holding substantive posts. Rule 21(4) preserves seniority for earlier appointees, while Rule 25(1)(ii) applies only to contemporaneous or near-contemporaneous entrants and cannot justify reordering seniority after the quota machinery has broken down. The relaxation power and the absence of UPSC consultation did not cure the defect in the impugned seniority lists, which were quashed and replaced by a lawful seniority basis consistent with earlier regular promotions and continuous officiation.

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Issues: (i) whether inter se seniority under the quota-rota system could be sustained when recruitment from the prescribed sources had substantially deviated from the quota over a long period; (ii) whether Rule 21(4) and Rule 25(1)(ii) of the 1964 Rules could be harmoniously applied so as to preserve seniority of earlier promotees and direct recruits who had entered service earlier; (iii) whether the power to relax the quota rule and the absence of consultation with the Union Public Service Commission saved the impugned seniority lists.

Issue (i): whether inter se seniority under the quota-rota system could be sustained when recruitment from the prescribed sources had substantially deviated from the quota over a long period.

Analysis: The 1964 Rules prescribed recruitment from more than one source with a fixed quota, and seniority was linked to rotation of vacancies. That scheme is valid in principle, but its operation depends on a reasonably faithful adherence to the quota. Where the factual position shows persistent and large-scale departure from the quota, the rota system ceases to produce equality and instead creates an arbitrary advantage for later entrants. The seniority lists in question left vacancies open for persons yet to be recruited, with the consequence that later direct recruits or limited departmental examination recruits would leapfrog over promotees who had already been regularly promoted and were holding substantive posts for years.

Conclusion: The quota-rota seniority scheme, as implemented in the impugned lists, was unconstitutional and could not be upheld against the petitioners.

Issue (ii): whether Rule 21(4) and Rule 25(1)(ii) of the 1964 Rules could be harmoniously applied so as to preserve seniority of earlier promotees and direct recruits who had entered service earlier.

Analysis: Rule 21(4) embodies the principle that persons promoted or recruited earlier on the basis of earlier selection or recruitment rank senior to those appointed on subsequent selection or recruitment. Rule 25(1)(ii) operates in a different setting, namely where appointees from different sources enter the grade at or about the same time and have to be integrated according to quota. Read together, the two provisions permit rota-based integration only for contemporaneous or near-contemporaneous entrants, but not where the quota machinery has broken down over years and vacancies are filled irregularly. In such a situation, continuous officiation of regularly promoted officers becomes the fair basis of seniority.

Conclusion: Rule 21(4) protected earlier appointees, and Rule 25(1)(ii) could not justify displacing them in the circumstances of the case.

Issue (iii): whether the power to relax the quota rule and the absence of consultation with the Union Public Service Commission saved the impugned seniority lists.

Analysis: Rule 29(a) vested power in the controlling authority to relax the rules, including the quota provision, for reasons recorded in writing. Repeated recruitment and promotion departures over several years justified the inference that the quota rule had been relaxed in practice to meet service exigencies. Even assuming that consultation with the Union Public Service Commission had not been obtained, that omission did not invalidate the appointments or confer any advantage on the respondents, because the consultation requirement was not treated as a condition affecting the validity of the acts done. The regular promotions made in substance to substantive vacancies therefore remained valid.

Conclusion: The challenged appointments and promotions were not rendered invalid by the alleged absence of consultation, but that did not rescue the impugned seniority lists.

Final Conclusion: The seniority lists were quashed because they violated equality by giving effect to a rota rule after the quota system had broken down, and fresh seniority was directed to be drawn on a lawful and fair basis consistent with earlier regular promotions and continuous officiation.

Ratio Decidendi: Where a quota-rota seniority scheme is not reasonably implemented for years and the quota rule breaks down, seniority cannot be determined by mechanically applying rotation of vacancies so as to place later entrants above earlier regularly promoted officers.

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