Uttaranchal High Court: The Bench of Ramesh Ranganathan, CJ and R.C. Khulbe, J., dismissed a petition seeking to quash the orders and further make the petitioner entitled to the post of the Principal.
In the present matter, the petitioner was appointed as an ad-hoc lecturer along with the respondent. Although both were appointed on the same day but the petitioner joined a day prior to the respondent. Also, both were regularized as lecturers on the same day after seven years. The petitioner hence claimed that, since the respondent joined late, therefore that would make him junior and the petitioner senior to him.
The same was rejected by the learned Single Judge placing due weightage on Rule 33-C (3) (b) of the Uttar Pradesh Secondary Education Service Commission (Amendment Act), 1998, and further held that the respondent being older in age, was entitled to seniority.
The Court rejected the petition on two grounds; the fact that the employee could not join on the date when he is required to, cannot act as a detriment. And secondly, the usage of the word “appointment” and not “joining” in clause (a) of Section 33-C (3), which provides for seniority in terms of age, made the respondent entitled to his seniority, thus granted by the learned Single Judge.[Deen Bandhu Singh Rawat v. State of Uttarakhand, 2019 SCC OnLine Utt 131, Order dated 27-02-2019]
