Retrospective seniority cannot be granted for period prior to entry into the cadre.

The deceased employee, Suresh Chandra Saxena, served as a Clerk in the U.P. State Government from 26.08.1960 to 06.10.1964

On 07.10.1964, he joined the Military Engineering Services (MES) as a Store Keeper Grade-II

He retired on 31.10.1996

In 1978, the applicant sought a re-fixation of seniority by counting his prior State service, a request that remained under consideration until after his retirement

While the respondents eventually counted his 4 years and 1 month of prior State service for pensionary benefits and issued a revised PPO, they rejected his claim for notional seniority and promotion in the Store Keeper Grade-II cadre via orders dated 09.12.2011 and 01.05.2012

The legal heirs (applicants) challenged these rejections, seeking notional seniority and consequential promotions

1. Whether the past services rendered in a State Government department can be reckoned for the purpose of seniority in a Central Government cadre (Store Keeper Grade-II) where the employee was not yet appointed at the time of such service.

2. Whether the applicant is entitled to retrospective notional seniority and promotion given that his past service was already counted for pensionary benefits.

The court examined Army Instruction No. 241/1950, which suggests that seniority should generally be determined based on the length of service in a grade or an equivalent grade

the court primarily applied the settled legal principle that an employee cannot receive retrospective seniority before the date they were "born" in the specific cadre

The service conditions were further governed by the CCS Rules framed under Article 309 of the Constitution (post-1965), which did not provide for the counting of past unrelated state service for cadre seniority

The Tribunal observed that the applicant joined the MES as a Store Keeper Grade-II only in 1964; therefore, he was not "born" in that specific cadre during his state service from 1960 to 1964

While the respondents correctly applied the rules to count his prior service for "pensionary benefits"—resulting in a revised PPO—this does not automatically translate to "cadre seniority"

The Tribunal noted that the applicant first raised the plea for seniority in 1978, decades after his appointment, and failed to produce any statutory rule supporting the counting of past state service for seniority within the Store Keeper Grade-II cadre

Consequently, his demand for notional promotion (to BS Gr-I, BSO, etc.) lacked a legal basis as seniority cannot be granted retrospectively for a period prior to his entry into the department

While the counting of past service for pension was valid and already granted, the claim for notional seniority and promotion was without merit

The Original Application was dismissed, and all pending miscellaneous applications were disposed of