RAJESH KUMAR AND ORS. vs UNION OF INDIA AND ORS.

Judgment text excerpt

* IN THE HIGH COURT OF DELHI AT NEW DELHI Date of decision: 06th NOVEMBER, 2025 IN THE MATTER OF: + W.P.(C) 8195/2015 RAJESH KUMAR AND ORS. .....Petitioners Through: Mr. Amrendra Kumar Jha and Mr. S.N. Shukla, Advs. versus UNION OF INDIA AND ORS. .....Respondents Through: Mr. Sushil Kumar Pandey, SPC CORAM: HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SUBRAMONIUM PRASAD HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE SAURABH BANERJEE JUDGMENT SUBRAMONIUM PRASAD, J. 1. The Petitioners have approached this Court challenging the Seniority List dated 30.03.2012 and for a consequential prayer of mandamus directing the Respondents to fix the Petitioners‟ seniority from the date of declaration of result of the Limited Departmental Competitive Examination [“LDCE”] 2008-09 for the post of Assistant Commandant in compliance with the Office Memorandum[“OM”] dated 24.06.1978. 2. In order to appreciate the procedural history of the present writ petition, this Court at the very outset notes that by way of the order dated 01.09.2015, this Court had dismissed the present writ petition in light of the observations of the Apex Court in Rohitash Kumar v. Om Prakash Sharma, (2013) 11 SCC 451 stating as under: “5. It is not in dispute that when the Petitioners joined the BSF as AC, the Border Security Force (General Signature Not Verified Digitally Signed By:HARIOM SINGH KIRMOLIYA W.P.(C) 8195/2015 Page 1 of 22 Signing Date:07.11.2025 11:44:19 Duty Officers) Recruitment Rules, 2001 were in force. Those rules had been amended from time to time-2003, 2004, 2009, 2010 and 2012. However, the basic scheme pertaining to seniority, whereby superior ranking officers would be senior to junior officers (Rule 7 (1)); the general rule that seniority of an officer would be from the date of selection (Rule 7(2)); inter se seniority of officers in a grade b