Notional seniority from batchmates’ joining date requires corresponding pay fixation and service benefits.

The applicants were recruited as Head Constables (AWO/TPO) pursuant to the 2013 Delhi Police examination.

They could not join the first training batch, which joined on 4 July 2016, and joined service later, in 2017–2018, allegedly due to administrative delay.

The respondents subsequently placed them in the inter-se seniority list with their examination batchmates from 4 July 2016, but declined to grant notional pay fixation, increments, MACP and related benefits for the intervening period.

After their representations were rejected, the applicants filed this OA seeking, among other reliefs, notional appointment from 4 July 2016 and consequential service benefits.

1. Whether applicants granted seniority from 4 July 2016 should also receive notional pay fixation and consequential service benefits from that date, despite joining later.

2. Whether the applicants were entitled to notional service credit for determining MACP and NPS-related benefits.

The application was brought under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985.

The Tribunal relied on the principle stated by the Delhi High Court in Director of Education & Anr. v. Smt. Krishna Kumari, W.P.(C) No. 13987/2009, decided 21 December 2009: where notional seniority is granted from an earlier date, the fiction must be given effect for pay fixation and consequential service benefits, including applicable progression benefits.

It also followed the Tribunal’s decision in Anil Kumar v. Commissioner of Police & Anr., O.A. No. 1329/2025, decided 21 November 2025, which applied that principle to notional pay fixation, MACP and NPS benefits.

The Tribunal found the present case materially identical to Anil Kumar, a comparison the respondents did not dispute.

Since the applicants had been placed in the inter-se seniority list with their batchmates from 4 July 2016, the Tribunal held that the service benefits associated with that notional date should likewise be counted from 4 July 2016.

It therefore applied the reasoning in Anil Kumar and Krishna Kumari to the applicants’ claim for notional service benefits.

The order records that the applicants’ notional service benefits are to be counted from 4 July 2016; pending MAs were also disposed of, with no order as to costs.