Public servants sleeping over their “right of seniority” in service cannot make a belated claim for it from a court of law, the Supreme Court has ruled while stating that “belated” interference by the judiciary in such matters would create an anarchic situation for good governance.
“A litigant who invokes the jurisdiction of a court for claiming seniority, it is obligatory on his part to come to the court at the earliest or at least within a reasonable span of time. The belated approach is impermissible as in the meantime interest of third parties gets ripened and further interference after enormous delay is likely to usher in a state of anarchy,” a bench of Justices B.S. Chauhan and Dipak Misra held.
Since public servants are obliged to serve the people and the impact of such belated fight over the seniority among them would have an impact on the administration, the SC said, “The acts done during the interregnum are to be kept in mind and should not be lightly brushed aside. It becomes an obligation to take into consideration the balance of justice or injustice in entertaining the petition (on seniority) or declining it on the ground of delay.”
“It is a matter of great significance that at one point of time equality that existed in favour of one melts into total insignificance and paves the way for extinction with the passage of time,” the apex court said. The verdict came on a set of appeals by some employees of the ordinance department based in Chandigarh, selected for appointment in 1885 but given appointment only in 1990. They approached the central administrative tribunal for the first time after a gap of eight years in 1993.