- (1.) In this writ petition, the petitioners raised a grievance regarding their seniority vis-a-vis the private respondents as Assistant Engineers and Assistant Executive Engineers in the Punjab State Electricity Board, (in short the Board). The case of the petitioners as put forth is that the Board had not framed or circulated any seniority list of Assistant Engineers showing the placement of the petitioners vis-a-vis the private respondents. Further, the tentative seniority list of Assistant Executive Engineers as on 31st December, 1985 (Annexure P-5 with the writ petition) which was issued on 22nd August, 1986, does not depict the correct position of the petitioner, vis-a-vis the private respondent.
(2.) The private respondents had filed written statement to the writ petition on 4th February, 1989, in which it was mentioned that on 18th April, 1984, all the respondents as also one of the writ petitioners, i.e. Baljit Singh Nayyar were confirmed as Assistant Engineers with effect from retrospective dates mentioned in the order, dated 18th April, 1984 (Attached) as Annexure R-11/3 with the written statement). it was further mentioned in the written statement that vide order of the Board, dated 26th April, 1988 (Annexure R-11/7 with the written statement) the private respondents and some others were confirmed as Assistant Executive Engineers with effect from retrospective dates mentioned in the order. For the view I am taking in the matter, it is not necessarily to advert to any other facts of the case.
(3.) According to Regulation 15 of the Punjab State Electricity Board Service of Engineers (Electrical) Regulations, 1965 (hereinafter called the Regulations) Governing the service conditions of the parties before me, seniority is determined as follows :- 15. SENIORITY : The seniority of the members of the Service shall be determined as follows :- (1) PRIOR TO CONFIRMATION : The seniority inter se of members of the Service in a particular class of post viz. Assistant Engineers Class II, Assistant Executive Engineers, Executive Engineers, Superintending Engineers and Chief Engineers shall be determined by the dates of their continuous appointment in that Class. Provided, firstly, that in the case of members appointed by direct appointment, the order of merit determined by the Board shall not be disturbed so for as the seniority in the class of post to which direct appointment was made is concerned, and persons appointed as a result of an earlier selection shall be senior to those appointed as a result of subsequent selection : (a) In the order of the salaries allowed to them on such date, the higher paid being placed above the lower paid or if both the date of appointment and the salary be the same, in the order of age, the older being placed above the younger, and (b) In the case of members of the service appointed as Assistant Engineers Class II and above by promotion according to their relative seniority in the lower class from which they were promoted unless a member of a lower class is promoted earlier than another member of that class who is senior to him and the latter has been passed over on the score of unsuitability or ineligibility for promotion in which case the member of the lower class first promoted shall take rank in the higher class above such other member of the lower class, if and when the late is promoted as Assistant Engineer Class II and/or above : Provided, thirdly, that a member of the service who is appointed as Asstt. Engineer Class II by direct appointed shall be senior to all members of the Service appointed as Asstt. Engineer Class II by promotion from the subordinate class who may be appointed in the Service of any member by direct appointment after the appointment in the same batch of selection : Provided, fourthly, that the seniority of a member of the Service appointed by transfer shall be determined by the Board on the merits of each case : Provided, fifthly, that if a member of the service is promoted temporarily to a post earlier than his senior, for reason other than the inefficiency of the senior person or his ineligibility for promotion they will rank inter se according to their relative seniority in the class from which they were promoted : Provided, sixthly, that in case two or more members from different categories become eligible for promotion to the rank of Asstt. Engineer Class II, against 10% reservation provided in sub-Regulation (7) of Regulation 9 above, their seniority on appointment as Asstt. Engineer Class II shall be determined as under :- (a) In order of their acquiring prescribed qualification of A.M.I.E. Degree in Engineering, the subordinates who clear the final examination in earlier batch and complete a minimum of 5 years' service will be placed above those fulfilling these two conditions, subsequently. The seniority list on these basis shall be framed as and when the subordinates fulfil these conditions and maintained upto date. (b) In case of person passing the examination in the same batch, in the order of their status and scale of pay, the higher paid and of higher status being placed senior; (c) In case of subordinates enjoying equal status, according to their relative seniority in the subordinate class to which they belong; and (d) In case of persons fixed in identical scales of pay, but belonging to different classes, in the order of continuous length of service in the identical scale and if the date of appointment is the same, in the order of their age, the older being placed above the younger. AFTER CONFIRMATION : Those who have been confirmed in a class, according to their respective date of confirmation : Provided that where two or more members are confirmed on the same date, they shall retain the order in which they stood with respect to each other immediately prior to confirmation." The perusal of the above Regulation shows that the two seniority lists are envisaged under the Regulations. First, prior to confirmation of an Officer and the second, after the confirmation. Under Regulation 15(1) of the Regulations, the seniority prior to confirmation is based on length of service and after confirmation, it is the date of confirmation which determines the seniority and in case of confirmation of two officers on the same date, the seniority is determined as per the Sub-Regulations of Regulations 15 ibid. This writ petition was filed in January 1988. Though confirmation order of the private respondents and one of the petitioners as Assistant Engineers stood already issued on 18th April, 1984, the order of confirmation of the respondents as Assistant Executive Engineers had not been issued. The order of confirmation of the respondents as Assistant Engineers, dated 18th April, 1984, by which even one of the petitioners, Shri Baljit Singh Nayyar had also been confirmed, as also the subsequent order of confirmation of the respondents, dated 26th April, 1988, even if were not to the knowledge of the petitioners for any reason, the same were brought to their notice by way of the written statement of the private respondents which was filed on 4th February, 1989. As noticed earlier, the seniority after confirmation depends upon the date of confirmation under Rule 15 ibid. Whatever the seniority of the petitioners vis-a-vis the respondents prior to the confirmation may be, the same lose much of its significance after the date of confirmation unless the date of confirmation is held to be wrong on any ground. The orders of confirmation of the respondents as Assistant Engineers and Assistant Executive Engineers have not been challenged in this writ petition, and, therefore, I cannot go into the validity of the order of confirmation of the respondents. The respondents' seniority would depend on the date of confirmation, unless it is held, for any reason, that the order of confirmation or the dates of confirmation of the respondents as Assistant Engineers or Assistant Executive Engineers are wrong. Since, as observed above, these orders are not under challenge before me, it would be futile to go into the validity of the seniority list, (Annexure P-5) as Assistant Executive Engineers' which was prior to the order of the date of confirmation of the respondents.;