Seniority of regularised ad hoc employees cannot be backdated by administrative order contrary to governing service rules.

Seniority of regularised ad hoc employees must be fixed strictly from the date of regularisation under the governing service rules, so they cannot rank above direct recruits appointed earlier. An administrative order cannot retrospectively deem such employees permanent from an earlier date or alter seniority in a manner inconsistent with the statutory rules. The Court therefore treated the challenged order as invalid and directed that seniority and selection-grade eligibility be reconsidered strictly in accordance with the Rules.

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Issues: (i) Whether ad hoc Sahayak Nagar Adhikaris, whose services were regularised only on 17.5.85, could be treated as senior to direct recruits appointed before that date and thereby made eligible for promotion and selection grade ahead of them; (ii) Whether the Government order issued under Rule 40(2) could validly deem continuously working ad hoc employees to have become permanent from an earlier date inconsistent with the statutory rules.

Issue (i): Whether ad hoc Sahayak Nagar Adhikaris, whose services were regularised only on 17.5.85, could be treated as senior to direct recruits appointed before that date and thereby made eligible for promotion and selection grade ahead of them.

Analysis: The statutory scheme required seniority to be reckoned from the date of appointment in accordance with the Rules, and Rule 21A treated regularised ad hoc employees as appointed only from the date of regularisation. The Government could not, therefore, assign them an anterior date of appointment or count their seniority from an earlier point so as to place them above direct recruits who were appointed earlier in accordance with the Rules.

Conclusion: No. The ad hoc employees regularised on 17.5.85 could not be treated as senior to the direct recruits appointed before that date.

Issue (ii): Whether the Government order issued under Rule 40(2) could validly deem continuously working ad hoc employees to have become permanent from an earlier date inconsistent with the statutory rules.

Analysis: An administrative order could not override the governing statutory rules. The impugned order, by deeming ad hoc employees permanent from two years after joining and thereby improving their seniority position, was contrary to the Rules and was intended to confer an undue advantage on the respondents. It was liable to be set aside.

Conclusion: No. The order under Rule 40(2) was invalid and was quashed.

Final Conclusion: The appellants were entitled to have the respondents' seniority and eligibility for selection grade determined strictly in accordance with the Rules, and the Government was directed to reconsider the matter on that basis.

Ratio Decidendi: Seniority and related service benefits of regularised ad hoc employees must be determined strictly from the date of regularisation under the governing rules, and an administrative order cannot retrospectively confer an earlier deemed permanency or seniority contrary to those rules.

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