Rajasthan State Road Transport Corporation & Others vs Sadhu Singh

Court

Supreme Court of India

Date

4 February 2022

Case No.

Civil Appeal No.1058 of 2022

Result

Allowed

Bench

D.Y. Chandrachud, Surya Kant

Citation

[2022] 1 S.C.R. 1130 : 2022 INSC 149

Headnote

Service Law – Selection Grade – Grant of – Respondentconductor was compulsorily retired from service in 2003 – He instituted suit in 2010 seeking benefit of first, second and third Selection Grades on completion of 9, 18 & 27 years of service – Trial court partially decreed the suit, directing that respondent shall be entitled to the grant of Selection Grade from 25 January 1992 on the completion of 9 years of service & the second Selection Grade pay scale from 7 January 2002 on the completion of 18 years of service –First Appellate Court as well as the High Court upheld the judgment of trial court – Held: The respondent waited for seven long years after his retirement to pursue a claim for grant of Selection Grade – It was clearly beyond the residuary period of limitation of three years provided in Art. 137 of the Schedule to the Limitation Act – That apart, grant of selection grade was not a matter of right and was subject to terms and conditions which were stipulated – In terms of Clause 7 of the scheme of Selection Grade only those employees whose service record was satisfactory were to be granted Selection Grade – Respondent failed to fulfill the terms and conditions as it did not fulfill the requirements of a clean record of service – During his service tenure, respondent was subjected to several disciplinary proceedings and as many as 19 charge-sheets were issued against him which resulted in penalties of varying nature – Thus, both on the question of limitation as well as on merits, respondent was not entitled to relief – Limitation Act, 1963 – Article

137 of the Schedule .

State of Rajasthan and Others v Shankar Lal Parmar (2011) 14 SCC 235: [2011] 11 SCR 762 – referred to.

The following Order of the Court was passed: ORDER 1. Leave granted. 2. This appeal arises from a judgment of a Single Judge of the Rajasthan High Court at the Jaipur Bench in SB Civil Second Appeal No 282 of 2017. 3. The respondent was appointed on the post of Conductor by the Regional Manager of the appellant at Bikaner. On 25 January 1992, the Finance Department of the Government of Rajasthan issued an Office Order in regard to the grant of the benefit of the first, second and third Selection Grades to employees on completing 9, 18 and 27 years of service respectively. The Office Order

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