In Brief
The respondent's father died as a Home Guard, and the respondent received a compassionate appointment order in 1985 but was rejected for failing physical fitness standards. A decade later, the Supreme Court directed his appointment as Adhinayak Lipik in 1996. The respondent subsequently claimed seniority from 1985. The High Court granted this retrospective seniority, but the Supreme Court reversed it. The Court held that retrospective seniority cannot be claimed from a date when an employee was not actually employed. Seniority must be counted from the actual date of joining service (1996), not the earlier order (1985). The respondent's six-year delay in raising the claim and failure to seek retrospective effect when appointed further defeated his plea.
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