Cadre seniority cannot be reopened after final determination; temporary appointees gain no seniority over regular officers.

Seniority in the Assistant Commercial Tax Officer cadre was confined to appointments made against substantive cadre vacancies in accordance with the governing rules. Temporary appointments to posts created outside the cadre did not confer a right to claim inter-se seniority over regularly appointed officers. The Court held that a seniority list prepared to implement an earlier Supreme Court ruling could not be reopened by invoking General Rule 35(aa), because the underlying controversy had already attained finality and could not be re-agitated on a fresh theory. The seniority list was therefore left undisturbed.

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Issues: Whether persons appointed to temporary posts of Assistant Commercial Tax Officer could be treated as part of the cadre for the purpose of inter-se seniority and whether the seniority list drawn pursuant to the earlier Supreme Court decision could be reopened on the ground that General Rule 35(aa) required a different approach.

Analysis: The dispute turned on the effect of the earlier judgment of the Supreme Court and the consequent seniority list prepared in implementation of that decision. The Court held that the earlier adjudication had already determined that seniority in the cadre of Assistant Commercial Tax Officer had to be worked out with reference to appointments made against substantive cadre vacancies and not on the basis of temporary posts created outside the cadre. It further held that the attempt to rely on General Rule 35(aa) could not override the binding effect of the earlier Supreme Court ruling, because the same controversy had already been concluded and the later challenge merely sought to re-agitate settled issues. The Court also accepted that temporary appointments made de hors the rules do not confer a right to claim seniority over regularly appointed officers.

Conclusion: The seniority list could not be disturbed, and the challenge to it failed.

Final Conclusion: The writ appeal was rejected because the controversy had attained finality and the appellant could not reopen the seniority question on a fresh line of argument.

Ratio Decidendi: Seniority can be claimed only against cadre posts filled in accordance with the governing rules, and a matter conclusively settled by the Supreme Court cannot be reopened in subsequent proceedings by invoking a different rule or theory.

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