Jagdish Chand vs Food Corporation Of India & Ors. on 16 December, 2015
In the considered opinion of this Court, implicit reliance upon
tentative seniority list (Annexure R-4A) cannot be paced because petitioner
had joined service for the first time in May, 1973 whereas the persons
shown junior to him in the seniority list (Annexure R-4) had joined service in
December, 1972. So, undue benefit of a mere inadvertence cannot accrue to
W.P.(C) 7292/2002 Page 4 of 5
petitioner now after four decades particularly when it has not come on
record as to when the seniority list was finalized. So, reliance placed by
petitioner's counsel upon the decisions in B.N. Bajpai (supra) and Major
General R.P.Mund (supra) is of no avail because these decisions were
rendered in an altogether different context. Clearly, there is an apparent
anomaly in the seniority list (Annexure R-4A) which dissuades this Court to
rely upon the RTI Information regarding their being 08 vacancies i.e. 05 for
Scheduled Castes to which petitioner belongs and remaining for other
categories. Such a view is being taken because it is not known as to when
the sanction for filling up the remaining vacancies was given to respondent-
FCI. Since petitioner's deemed date of joining i.e. 15th December, 1972 is
without any basis and justification, therefore, its withdrawal by the
subsequent impugned office order (Annexure P-7) cannot be faulted with.