The Manipur High Court has delivered a significant verdict, striking down the state government's final seniority list for Assistant Public Prosecutors (APPs). The court strongly criticized the list, calling the government's ranking method "arbitrary, unreasonable, and not supported by any rules or instructions from the competent authority."
Court's Grounds for Quashing the Seniority List
Justice A Guneshwar Sharma pronounced the judgment while addressing a petition filed by two government-appointed APPs. They had challenged a July 2022 notification that placed them below colleagues who entered service years after them, despite the petitioners having an earlier appointment date.
The court laid down crucial principles for determining seniority in such cases. Justice Sharma stated that for appointments made in different years, the initial date of appointment should be the primary consideration for seniority, especially when no contrary rules exist.
Furthermore, the judgment clarified that if contract employees appointed in different years are regularized on the same day, those appointed earlier must be considered senior to those appointed later. The court emphasized that in the absence of specific rules or executive instructions, it is appropriate for courts to establish a fair mechanism to decide such seniority disputes.
Background of the Legal Dispute
The case has a long history. The petitioners were first appointed as APPs on a contract basis for one year in December 2005. Their contracts were periodically extended between 2005 and 2016. During this period, other individuals were appointed on contract in 2009 and 2010.
In 2016, the Manipur government regularized all these contractual appointments. However, when a seniority list was issued in 2021, the petitioners found themselves at serial numbers 10 and 11, effectively making them junior to those appointed years after them.
This led them to approach the High Court in 2022, which quashed the 2021 list and directed the state to prepare a new list within two months. The Deputy Secretary (Law) officially set aside the old list and called for fresh objections. Yet, when the new final seniority list was published in July 2022, the petitioners were again placed at the same junior positions, prompting the current legal challenge.
Violation of Court Directions and Legal Principles
The court noted that the state's action was in direct contravention of its own 2022 order in a connected matter, where a similar APP seniority list was set aside with a direction for a fresh determination.
Justice Sharma pointed out a critical legal principle: the seniority of direct recruits from a common examination is based on the merit list, unless specified otherwise by relevant rules. Since the recruitment to the APP post is through direct recruitment, the regularization of contract employees into the APP cadre is also considered a form of direct recruitment.
The judgment concluded that the Manipur government's 2022 seniority list, issued by the Deputy Secretary (Law), is hereby set aside. The court found the state's preference for later-appointed contract employees over earlier-appointed ones to be fundamentally unfair and lacking a legal basis.
