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The Supreme Court has held that inter se seniority for temporary or special-category appointees ordinarily runs from regularisation unless governing rules clearly prescribe another method.
Justices S. V. N. Bhatti and Shree Chandrashekhar rejected a claim by compassionate appointees to count temporary service from 1981 ahead of direct recruits appointed in 1983. The compassionate appointments were regularised only in 1984, and the relevant framework did not authorise retrospective seniority.
The court said length of ad hoc or temporary service cannot displace regularly appointed employees without a clear legal basis. It disposed of the connected appeals with modifications to the seniority determination in M. Prema’s case on 9 October 2026.
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