In Brief
This Supreme Court judgment upholds the principle that inter se seniority of judicial officers appointed through direct recruitment must be determined by merit rather than by roster points. The Court clarified that the roster system serves only to ensure proportionate representation of reserved categories in recruitment; it does not govern seniority rankings. Applying the settled law from Bimlesh Tanwar v. State of Haryana, the Court dismissed the petitioners' challenge to the High Court's direction to reframe the seniority list of 2003-batch Munsiffs based on merit. The Court held that this principle applied even to appointments made after Bimlesh Tanwar was decided.
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