In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court struck down a Tamil Nadu government amendment that gave seniority to in-service candidates over open market candidates in police recruitment, despite the latter securing higher marks in the selection exam.
The Court emphasized that seniority in direct recruitment must strictly be based on merit—measured by examination performance—not prior service or other unrelated factors.
“Once an appointment to service is made based upon a competitive examination, the seniority has to be maintained on the basis of performance in the examination and not by taking into account the past service alone.”
The case revolved around the Tamil Nadu Police Subordinate Service Rules, 1955. Initially, there was no provision for promoting Head Constables through direct recruitment to the post of Sub-Inspector. However, a Government Order (G.O.) passed in 1995 reserved 20% of direct recruitment vacancies for in-service Head Constables and placed them above open market candidates in seniority—even if they scored lower marks.
This G.O. was formalized in 2017 through an amendment to Rule 25(a), giving retrospective effect from 1995 onwards. This allowed in-service candidates to claim higher seniority than their more meritorious counterparts from the open market.
The appellants, open market direct recruits, challenged this rule, stating it violated Article 14 (equality), Article 16 (non-discrimination in public employment), and Article 21 (due process) of the Constitution.
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Justice SC Sharma, who authored the judgment along with Justice BV Nagarathna, declared the 2017 amendment unconstitutional.
“The amendment brought vide G.O. dated 21.11.2017 is violative of Articles 14, 16 and 21 of the Constitution of India and deserves to be struck down.”
The Court further held that rules cannot be changed retrospectively to favor less meritorious candidates and added that executive orders cannot override statutory recruitment rules.
The Court also cited previous judgments including:
- Dinesh Kumar Gupta vs. High Court of Judicature of Rajasthan (2020) – where seniority was ruled to be based on exam rank, not prior service.
- Prem Narayan Singh vs. High Court of Madhya Pradesh (2021) – where it was reaffirmed that merit must decide seniority in competitive promotions.
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“In the present case, the direct recruitment has been done to 80% of the vacancies through candidates from open market and 20% from in-service candidates…seniority must be fixed based on the marks obtained in the exam and the ranking assigned by the appointing authority.”
Supreme Court Directions:
The Court directed the Tamil Nadu government to:
- Recast all seniority lists from 1995 onward, giving rank strictly as per marks obtained in the selection process.
- Complete this exercise within 60 days.
- Not revert officers already promoted based on the earlier lists, but stop new promotions until revised lists are prepared.
- Grant notional promotions and consequential benefits (excluding back wages) to eligible direct recruits.
- Conduct a single competitive exam in the future for all direct recruitment—both for open market and in-service candidates—assigning seniority based purely on exam marks.
Case Title: R. RANJITH SINGH & ORS. VERSUS THE STATE OF TAMIL NADU & ORS.
Appearance:
For Petitioner(s) Mr. A. Venayagam Balan, AOR Mr. S. Nagamuthu, Sr. Adv. Mr. M.P. Parthiban, AOR Mr. Ankur Prakash, Adv. Mrs. Priyanka Singh, Adv. Mr. Bilal Mansoor, Adv. Mr. Shreyas Kaushal, Adv. Mr. S. Geyolin Selvam, Adv. Mr. Alagiri K, Adv.
For Respondent(s) Mr. Amit Anand Tiwari, Sr. A.A.G. Mr. Sabarish Subramanian, AOR Ms. Devyani Gupta, Adv. Mr. Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Adv. Ms. Tanvi Anand, Adv. Mr. Danish Saifi, Adv. Mr. Pranjal Mishra, Adv. Mr. Karpagavinayagam, Sr. Adv. Mr. Sreegesh M.k, Adv. Mr. A. Venayagam Balan, AOR Mr. Gaurav Pal, Adv. Mrs. V.Santhanalakshmi, Adv. Mr. Yashodeep P Deshmukh, Adv. Mr. Puneet Thakur, Adv. Mrs. Meera Karta, Adv. Mr. C.M. Sundaram, Adv. Mr. Ravi Shankar Kumar, Adv. Mr. Sanjay Kumar Mishra, Adv. Ms. Sameeksha Kashyap, Adv. Mr. Sahil Goyal, Adv. Mr. Binay Kumar Das, AOR Mr. A. Selvin Raja, AOR Mr. Musthafa Atheeq, Adv. Mr. Ashokkumar. K, Adv.
