Chandigarh The Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), Chandigarh bench, has directed the Chandigarh administration to revive the option for clerks and junior assistants recruited under individual departmental cadres to opt for the common cadre and prepare a fresh common seniority list based on their length of service.
The order, pronounced on September 3, was passed on a petition filed by 23 employees working as clerks and junior assistants in various departments, including the Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, Chandigarh Transport Undertaking (CTU), education department, estate office, Chandigarh police and other offices.
The dispute arose after the Chandigarh administration introduced common cadre recruitment rules for ministerial posts in 2015. Prior to this, individual departments had their own recruitment and promotion rules. The common cadre system was introduced to facilitate inter-departmental transfers and bring ministerial posts under a common framework.
The applicants were employees recruited between 1993 and 2014, before the common cadre system came into existence. They contended that despite having considerably longer service, they faced the possibility of being superseded by employees recruited under the common cadre between 2016 and 2018.
Under the 2019 recruitment rules governing promotion to senior assistant and superintendent Grade-II, vacancies across departments were clubbed and clerks and junior assistants with five years of service became eligible for promotion to senior assistant. The rules also stated that they would apply to employees irrespective of their mode of recruitment.
The administration had initially invited options from employees recruited outside the common cadre to join the cadre for promotion. However, the process was subsequently withdrawn in September 2021, following litigation by other employees. A separate seniority list for common cadre employees was then initiated.
The tribunal observed that the arrangement had resulted in two promotion channels- one for employees recruited before 2016 through their respective departments and another for those recruited through the common cadre from 2016 onwards. It said this had created a disparity in promotion prospects and could result in accelerated promotions for common cadre employees while causing stagnation in individual departments.
CAT held that employees performing the same work should have parity in eligibility, salary and promotion prospects. While eligibility and salary were on par, the tribunal found that promotion opportunities were not.
However, the tribunal stopped short of directing the administration to immediately create one consolidated seniority list covering every employee across all departments. It held that such a list was not administratively feasible at this stage.
Instead, it directed that employees who had been given the option in 2020 to join the common cadre should again be allowed to exercise that option. A common seniority list is to be prepared for common cadre employees and departmental employees who opt to join it, with inter-seniority determined on the basis of their total length of service.
Employees who do not opt for the common cadre will continue in their respective departments and be considered for promotion there according to their eligibility and availability of vacancies.
The tribunal quashed and set aside the September 23, 2021 memo and September 24, 2021 seniority-list process and directed the administration to complete the exercise within three months of receiving the certified copy of the order. The original application was allowed, with no order as to costs.
Shivangi Vashisht is a reporter with Hindustan Times covering the Chandigarh District Courts, the Special CBI Court, the Central Administrative Tribunal and the Consumer Commission. She reports on criminal cases, CBI investigations and corruption matters, as well as consumer disputes, housing litigation and administrative law. She tracks cases from filing to verdict, translating legal developments into accessible public interest stories.Read More