HP High Court Rules: No Seniority Benefit for Non-Emergency Military Service in Civil Jobs
In a significant ruling, the Himachal Pradesh High Court has held that ex-servicemen who served in non-emergency military roles are not entitled to count their military service for seniority in civil employment. Justice Satyen Vaidya, presiding over a single bench, dismissed the petition filed by an ex-serviceman and quashed two state government notifications dated January 30, 2018, and February 25, 2019, which were cited in support of the petition.
The court stated that once a law or rule is declared unconstitutional, it is considered void from inception. Such a declaration cannot be undone by executive notifications; only legislative action can override a judicial ruling.
The petitioner, currently serving as an Honorary Head Warden in the Himachal Pradesh Prisons and Correctional Services Department, had sought that his previous military service be counted toward his civil seniority. He based his claim on Rule 5(1) of the 1972 Ex-Servicemen Reservation Rules in Himachal Pradesh and argued that he was appointed before the 2008 V.K. Bahl judgment, which had struck down the rule as unconstitutional.
However, the High Court rejected this argument, emphasizing that the state's notifications could not negate the effect of a court ruling, and thus dismissed the petition.
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