The Supreme Court has ruled that a government employee must receive a fair opportunity of hearing before any change to seniority, including where the original seniority determination did not follow the relevant service rules. Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, Justice Musarrat Hilali and Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan, sitting as a three-member bench, gave the judgment on review petitions brought by Sindh Police sub-inspectors.
What the bench held
The bench found that the 2020 revision of the petitioners' seniority list, made without hearing them, breached natural justice and the due process guaranteed by Article 10-A of the Constitution. Article 10-A is the constitutional guarantee of due process. In this setting, natural justice means the employee is told of a step that may go against them and is allowed to answer before the step is taken.
Seniority, the judges said, is an important service right because it is tied to career progression. Where an older list does not match service rules, the employees who would be affected still have to be heard before the list is changed to their disadvantage. A fair opportunity of hearing was therefore required before that adverse change.
What Sindh Police must do now
The sub-inspectors said the seniority list of 28 April 2015 had given them their proper positions. On 18 November 2020 the list was revised and they were placed below their colleagues. They said the department issued no show-cause notices, written notices asking a person to explain why an action should not be taken, and gave them no chance to present their case.
The bench recalled its order of 4 April 2024, restored the relevant civil petitions, converted those petitions into appeals and partly allowed them. It set aside the Sindh Service Tribunal's decision for the first group of petitioners.
The department must give the affected officers a hearing, look into the objections they file and decide the matter with reasons, following the law. That process is the fair opportunity of hearing the court required. Where those objections succeed, and the revision is held to have been unlawful, the department has two months from receiving the judgment to issue a fresh seniority list. Until then, the first group keeps its existing position on the seniority list of 18 November 2020.
Timeline: what has happened so far
- 28 April 2015: A seniority list was issued in which the petitioners say they held their proper positions.
- 18 November 2020: The list was revised and the petitioners were placed below colleagues, without show-cause notices or a chance to present their case.
- 4 April 2024: The Supreme Court made an order which the present judgment has recalled.
Aasan alfaaz mein
Supreme Court ne faisla diya hai ke sarkari mulazim ki seniority badalne se pehle usay sunwayi ka mauqa dena zaroori hai, chahe pehli list service rules ke mutabiq na ho. Sindh Police ke sub-inspectors kehte hain ke 28 April 2015 ki list theek thi, lekin 18 November 2020 ko unhein neeche kar diya gaya, bina notice ke. Ab department unki baat sunay ga aur likhi hui waja ke sath faisla de ga. Agar unka aitraz theek nikla aur tabdeeli galat thi, to do mahine ke andar nayi list aani chahiye, aur tab tak unki maujooda position waisi hi rahe gi.
