Reinstatement with continuity of service requires selection grade from initial appointment, absent other impediment.

The petitioner, appointed as a Senior Bailiff on 14 June 1999, claimed selection grade from the date of his initial appointment.

His service had earlier been terminated on the allegation that he furnished a bogus certificate to claim priority in appointment. On appeal, the termination order was set aside and he was directed to be reinstated without backwages, but with continuity of service, including seniority benefits.

The Principal District Judge, Vellore, rejected his claim by order dated 10 May 2024 in Dis. No. 4921/2024/CN, principally relying on the fact that the petitioner had not been granted backwages.

The petitioner therefore challenged that order under Article 226 of the Constitution and sought selection grade from 14 June 1999 with consequential benefits.

Whether an employee whose termination was set aside on appeal and who was reinstated with continuity of service and seniority, but without backwages, is entitled to selection grade from the date of initial appointment

Whether denial of backwages, by itself, constitutes an impediment to granting selection grade based on continuity of service and length of service

The Court applied the principle that selection grade and special grade are to be determined with reference to the employee’s length of service and the rules applicable to promotion.

Where an order of termination is set aside and the employee is reinstated with continuity of service, including continuity of seniority, the stigma arising from the termination is wiped out and the employee’s service is treated as continuous for determining such service benefits.

The Court distinguished continuity of service and seniority from the separate monetary consequence of backwages; denial of backwages does not, by itself, extinguish service-related benefits based on length of service.

The Court found that the petitioner had been fully exonerated in the appellate proceedings because the order of removal was set aside and he was reinstated with continuity of service and seniority.

Since selection grade is assessed by applying the rules governing promotion and by considering the employee’s length of service, continuity of service required the petitioner’s service to be reckoned from his initial appointment on 14 June 1999.

The Court rejected the respondents’ reliance on the absence of backwages, holding that the petitioner’s waiver or denial of backwages could not be treated as a bar to benefits founded on seniority and continuous service.

Consequently, the Principal District Judge’s refusal to grant selection grade was held to be inconsistent with the applicable service rules.

The Court set aside the Principal District Judge’s order dated 10 May 2024 in Dis. No. 4921/2024/CN and directed the respondents to grant the petitioner selection grade with effect from his initial appointment date, 14 June 1999, if there was no other legal impediment, together with all consequential benefits.

The petition was allowed without costs.