Inter-se seniority must follow actual appointment date, not vacancy year or recruitment initiation, under the service rules.

Inter-se seniority in the Manipur Police Service Grade II cadre was governed by the service rules, which required seniority to run from the date of actual appointment to the cadre. The Court reaffirmed that no employee can claim seniority from a date on which he was not borne in the cadre unless the rules expressly permit it, and held that the year of vacancy or initiation of recruitment cannot be treated as the basis for seniority. The seniority list prepared on that basis was invalid, the promotees' seniority over direct recruits was upheld, and the contrary approach in N.R. Parmar was disapproved and overruled prospectively.

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Issues: Whether inter-se seniority in the Manipur Police Service Grade II cadre was to be determined by the date of actual appointment or by the year of vacancy and initiation of recruitment, and whether the seniority lists prepared on the basis of the latter were valid.

Analysis: The governing service rules provided that seniority in the service was to be determined by the order of appointment and that the seniority of direct recruits and promotees was to be counted from the date of appointment to the service. The settled principle applied was that no employee can claim seniority from a date on which he was not borne in the cadre, unless the relevant rules expressly provide otherwise. On that basis, the Court held that the recruitment year could not be equated with the year of initiation of recruitment proceedings or the year of vacancy for fixing seniority. The decision in N.R. Parmar, to the extent it treated initiation of the recruitment process as relevant for seniority in the absence of such a rule, was disapproved and overruled prospectively.

Conclusion: The seniority of the promotees over the direct recruits was upheld, and the challenged seniority list prepared on the basis of vacancy year or recruitment initiation was invalid.

Final Conclusion: The High Court's directions were sustained, the direct recruits and the State failed in their challenge, and the State was required to prepare a revised inter-se seniority list in accordance with the service rules and the Court's ruling.

Ratio Decidendi: Inter-se seniority is governed by the relevant service rules and ordinarily runs from the date of actual appointment to the cadre, not from the date of vacancy or initiation of recruitment, unless the rules expressly provide for a different basis.

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