Seniority follows initial entry into service; retrospective promotion cannot displace direct recruits already in the cadre.

Seniority in the same cadre was held to depend on the date of initial entry into service, not on a later retrospective promotion that would prejudice members already appointed. Promotee Assistant Engineers could not be deemed senior to direct recruits by relating promotions back to an earlier date when they were not in the cadre. The quota arrangement did not authorise altering the vested seniority of direct recruits already serving in Bihar Engineering Service, Class II. The impugned government orders were therefore invalid.

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Issues: Whether promotee Assistant Engineers could be given retrospective promotion so as to rank senior to direct recruits already appointed in the cadre.

Analysis: The promotions granted to the Overseers were sought to be related back to earlier dates within the promotee quota. The direct recruits, however, had already entered the Bihar Engineering Service, Class II before the promotees were brought into the cadre. Seniority among members of the same grade is ordinarily determined by the date of initial entry into the service, and a person cannot be promoted retrospectively from a date when he was not in the cadre if that would prejudice others already appointed. The quota arrangement did not justify treating the promotees as senior to those who had been directly recruited earlier in their own quota.

Conclusion: The retrospective promotions could not be used to alter the seniority of the direct recruits, and the impugned government orders were invalid.

Ratio Decidendi: Seniority in the same cadre is reckoned from initial entry into service, and retrospective promotion cannot be granted in a manner that prejudicially affects the vested seniority of persons already in the cadre.

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