SALAHUDDIN And Others vs GOVERNMENT OF THE PUNJAB Through Secretary, Education And Other
This petition for special leave to appeal arises from a service dispute concerning the determination of seniority between ministerial staff transferred from Local Councils to the Provincial Education Department following the promulgation of the West Pakistan Primary Education Ordinance, 1962, and those already serving in the department prior to the transfer. The core legal question was whether the transferred employees were entitled to count their previous length of service under the Local Councils for seniority or whether their seniority should commence strictly from the date of their provincialization on July 1, 1962. The Punjab Service Tribunal held that the petitioners were entitled to receive seniority only from July 1, 1962, when they joined government service. Upon challenge, the Supreme Court granted leave to appeal, recognizing that the questions raised regarding the fixation of seniority upon provincialization or nationalization are of great public importance and pending consideration in other appeals.
- How is the seniority of ministerial staff transferred from Local Councils to the Provincial Government under the West Pakistan Primary Education Ordinance, 1962 to be determined?
- Whether employees whose services were transferred to the Provincial Education Department are entitled to count their previous length of service under Local Councils for fixation of seniority?
- Whether an appeal before the Punjab Service Tribunal is competent when the aggrieved parties have not exhausted the departmental remedy of appeal?
- Section 6(b), West Pakistan Primary Education Ordinance 1962
SAAD SAOOD JAN, J.-- In this petition for special leave to appeal the petitioners were serving in the ministerial staff connected with the Primary Education Branches of the Local Councils. By operation of the West Pakistan Primary Education Ordinance, 1962, which was subsequently amended by Ordinance XXIII of 1964, their services were transferred to the Provincial Education Department with effect from 1-7-1962. Respondents Nos. 5 to 39 were already serving in the Education Department before that date. The question arose as to how the seniority of the petitioners was to be determined with reference to the said respondents. The case of the petitioners was that their seniority should be fixed in accordance with their lengths of service under the Local Councils. On the other hand, the stand of the respondents was that the seniority of the petitioners should be determined with effect from 1-7-1962 when their services were transferred to the Provincial Government. In January 1968, the Adviser and Ex-Officio Joint Secretary to the Provincial Government in the Education Department sent a memorandum to all the Directors of Education in the Provincial Government wherein it was stated:- "In accordance with subsection (b) of section 6 of the West Pakistan Primary Education Ordinance, 1962, all the teachers and staff of the Local Councils have now been employed by Government with effect from the date of promulgation of the said Ordinance i.e. 1-7-1962, and they have become Government Servants with effect from the same date. Their seniority will, therefore, be determined from the date of provincialization in their respective cadres.
You are, therefore, requested to please prepare Integrated Seniority Lists of all officials/officers of your respective Regions and circulate them among all concerned to have their objections, if any."
Later, on 29-6-1970 the Education Department clarified the position further by saying that seniority of the ministerial staff transferred from the Local Councils to the Government service would come into force from the date of their transfer that is 1-7-1962. In accordance with these policy decisions a list of provincialised ministerial staff was prepared. In this list the petitioners were shown below the respondents.
2. Apparently the dispute with regard to seniority between the two groups, that is, those who were already in Government service on 1-7-1962 and those who entered into Government service consequent upon the promulgation of the West Pakistan Primary Education Ordinance, 1962, still continued. The Education Department consulted the Services, General Administration and Information Department in the dispute. The latter advised that the seniority should be determined in each cadre from the date of continuous officiating in the respective grades. On the basis of this advice another seniority list was prepared in which the petitioners were granted the benefit of service under Local Councils in fixing their seniority with reference to the respondents. This seniority list was challenged by the respondents before the Punjab Service Tribunal. The learned Tribunal accepted the appeal and held that the petitioners were entitled to receive seniority only with effect from 1-7-1962 when they joined Government service.
3. It is contended on behalf of the petitioners that the learned Service Tribunal has misread the advice given by the Services, General Administration and Information Department. Apart from that the appeal of the respondents before the Service Tribunal was incompetent as they had not exercised the remedy of appeal before approaching the Tribunal. It is also stated that the question arising in this appeal has already been raised in some other appeals pending in this Court wherein the fixation of seniority of teachers of nationalized institutions with reference to those who were already in service on the date of nationalization is in dispute.
4.The questions raised in this appeal are of great public importance. We grant permission to appeal to the petitioners. The appeal should be made ready for hearing on the present record with permission to the parties to add such other documents as they may consider necessary Security for costs in the amount of Rs.2,000 be deposited.