The Jharkhand High Court has delivered a judgment on seniority, stating that salary protection provided to an employee or the calculation of prior service is strictly for pension-related benefits and does not confer the right to claim seniority in a different service or cadre, especially when an employee has voluntarily transferred. The ruling was made by a division bench consisting of Justice Sujit Narayan Prasad and Justice Rajesh Kumar.
The court clarified that seniority is determined based on the actual date of entry into service. It cannot be calculated from the date of a vacancy or by including previous service, unless there is an explicit provision in the service rules.
Referring to a Supreme Court ruling, the bench asserted that calculating prior service for the purpose of salary protection or to grant selection or special grades does not imply that the employee remains part of the original service. Counting service for salary protection or pension benefits is unrelated to seniority, as it does not affect the service of other employees. Seniority adjustments, however, have consequences for other personnel.
The court’s comments were made in response to the arguments presented by the petitioners, who claimed that if they had received salary protection, their previous service period should also be included in the seniority determination. The bench dismissed the petitioners’ plea.
The case involved Binod Kumar Mahto and others versus the State of Jharkhand and others. The petitioners joined administrative service in 2010 and voluntarily moved to police service in 2012. They sought to have their seniority calculated from 2010, which the bench rejected.