The Jharkhand High Court has ruled on a seniority matter, stating that salary protection or the calculation of previous service periods is solely for pension benefits and does not grant the right to claim seniority in a different service or cadre, especially when an employee has voluntarily changed services. The ruling came from a bench comprising Justices Sujit Narayan Prasad and Rajesh Kumar.
The court clarified that seniority is determined by the actual date of entry into service and cannot be calculated from the date of a vacancy or by adding previous service, unless explicitly stated in the service rules. The court upheld the order of the single bench and dismissed the appeal.
Referring to a Supreme Court order, the bench stated that the calculation of previous service for salary protection or to grant selection/special grades does not mean that the employee remained part of the old service. Counting service for salary protection or pension benefits is not related to seniority because it does not interfere with the service of other employees, while a change in seniority affects other personnel.
The bench made this comment on the arguments of the petitioners, who claimed that if they received salary protection, their previous service period should also be considered in determining seniority. The bench dismissed the petition, resulting in a setback for the petitioners.
The case involved Binod Kumar Mahto and others versus the State of Jharkhand and others. The petitioners had joined administrative service in 2010 and voluntarily transferred to police service in 2012. They demanded that their seniority be counted from 2010, which the bench rejected.
