In Brief
Manohar Lal Jat and others challenged a High Court judgment that allowed departmental promotees to be placed ahead of direct recruits in the seniority list under Rajasthan service rules. The Supreme Court held that seniority must be determined by the date of appointment under Rule 27, not the date of selection. The 2002 amendment's proviso to Rule 27 applies only when two selections are for the same category. Since this was the first recruitment to a newly created cadre with selections from different quotas, the proviso did not apply. The Court ruled that a proviso cannot override the main provision and cannot be applied retrospectively. The appeals were dismissed.
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