Madras HC: TNPSC cannot revise seniority fixed before the 2003 cut-off set by the Supreme Court

The Madras High Court has set aside a 2022 order of Tamil Nadu's Forensic Sciences Department that revised, on the basis of merit, the seniority of Scientific Assistants recruited through the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) in 1996 and 1999. The Supreme Court, in contempt proceedings arising from Bimlesh Tanwar v. State of Haryana, (2003) 5 SCC 604, had held that seniority must be fixed by merit in the selection list rather than by communal roster points, but its subsequent orders dated 18 April 2023 and 9 May 2024 made clear that seniority lists finalised before 10 March 2003, the date of the Bimlesh Tanwar judgment, would stand frozen and not be reopened. The petitioners' seniority had been fixed on the roster basis before that cut-off.

The TNPSC first instructed the department to restore the original roster-based seniority, then withdrew that instruction after taking legal advice, without giving independent reasons of its own. Justice C. Kumarappan held that an administrative authority cannot issue instructions contrary to a Supreme Court direction, and that the 2022 revision disturbed a seniority list the Supreme Court had directed to remain frozen. The revision was quashed and the petitioners' original seniority restored, with the Court noting that the issue, though raised by individual petitioners, concerned the implementation of the Supreme Court's own directions and so did not require all affected persons to be impleaded.