ACP/MACP benefits accrue only from regularisation; prior ad hoc or temporary service cannot be counted.

The applicant was appointed as a Lower Division Clerk (LDC) in 1977 on a provisional/temporary basis.

Under the applicable Recruitment Rules, passing a typing test was mandatory for regularisation in the LDC grade.

The applicant did not pass the typing test and was granted exemption from it on 03.05.1993 under the Government of India O.M. dated 29.09.1992.

His promotion to Upper Division Clerk was subsequently regularised on 26.02.2009.

After an earlier O.A. was disposed of with a direction to consider his representation, the respondents rejected his claim by order dated 26.04.2016, leading to the present proceedings.

Whether the applicant’s service rendered before 03.05.1993 could be counted as “regular service” for determining his eligibility for financial upgradation under the ACP/MACP Schemes?

Whether the requirement of passing the typing test, or exemption from it, was merely a qualification for promotion that could be ignored while granting ACP/MACP benefits, or a condition precedent to regularisation in the LDC grade?

Whether the applicant was entitled to the second and third financial upgradations before his retirement on 31.10.2013?

The Tribunal applied paragraph 3.2 of the ACP Scheme contained in DoP&T O.M. dated 09.08.1999, under which “regular service” means the service counted for regular promotion under the applicable recruitment or service rules.

It also applied Condition 9 of the MACP Scheme dated 19.05.2009, which provides that regular service commences from joining the post in the direct-entry grade on a regular basis and excludes ad hoc, contract, temporary or other non-regular service rendered before regular appointment.

The Tribunal relied on paragraph 7 of the O.M. dated 29.09.1992, which permitted regularisation or confirmation in the LDC grade only from a date not earlier than the date of exemption from the typing test, and on the clarificatory O.M. dated 14.09.1995, which stated that such regularisation or promotion would have prospective effect.

Although *Amresh Kumar Singh v. State of Bihar*, SLP (C) Nos. 8219–8226 of 2019, decided on 25.04.2023, and *Union of India v. T.R. Sharma*, W.P. No. 4879/2014, recognised that higher qualifications prescribed for a promotional post should not ordinarily defeat the anti-stagnation purpose of ACP/MACP, the Tribunal held that those decisions concerned qualifications for the promotional post and did not govern a condition precedent to regularisation in the entry grade.

The Tribunal distinguished the authorities relied upon by the applicant because the typing test was not merely a qualification for promotion to UDC; it was a mandatory requirement for regularisation in the LDC grade itself.

Since the applicant was appointed provisionally and did not pass the test, his service before the grant of exemption remained temporary or unregularised.

Under the express terms of the ACP and MACP Schemes, that period could not be included in qualifying regular service.

The exemption granted on 03.05.1993 operated prospectively, making that date the commencement of his regular service.

Consequently, his first financial upgradation fell due on 03.05.2005, while the second would become due only on 03.05.2017.

As the applicant retired on 31.10.2013, the second and third financial upgradations had not accrued during his service.

The Tribunal further held that the beneficial purpose of the ACP/MACP Schemes could not justify disregarding their clear statutory and administrative conditions or rewriting the requirement of regular service.

It held that his regular service commenced only on 03.05.1993, the date on which he was exempted from the typing test, and that his pre-exemption service could not be counted for ACP/MACP purposes.

The applicant was therefore not entitled to the second and third financial upgradations before his retirement.

The O.A. was dismissed, the impugned order dated 26.04.2016 was upheld, and there was no order as to costs.

Pending miscellaneous applications, if any, were also disposed of.