SC restores KP employees’ seniority, sets aside service tribunal ruling

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court has set aside a service tribunal ruling concerning the seniority of employees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and allowed the employees’ appeals, directing that their seniority be restored to its original position.

A 13-page judgment authored by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar ruled that the employees’ regularisation would take effect from March 7, 2018, and that the delay in publishing their regularisation notifications in the official gazette could not prejudice their legal rights.

The court observed that employees could not be punished for administrative delays and that the state could not benefit from its own administrative error.

“An employee cannot be made a scapegoat because of administrative incompetence,” the judgment said, adding that the delay in gazette publication was merely an administrative lapse.

The Supreme Court further held that the employees could not be deprived of their legal rights because of administrative delays and that the delay in gazette publication did not render their regularisation ineffective.

It also ruled that the date on which a notification was published could not be made the sole criterion for determining seniority.

The employees had been regularised under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Employees Regularisation of Services Act, 2018, with their regularisation taking effect from March 7, 2018.

However, the regularisation notifications were issued on August 28 and October 17, 2018, while they were published in the official gazette on August 21, 2024.

The relevant employees had been placed senior in seniority lists issued between 2019 and 2023. Some employees later challenged the 2024 seniority list.

The service tribunal had subsequently annulled the 2024 seniority list, treating the delay in gazette publication as significant in determining the employees’ seniority.

The Supreme Court has now overturned that ruling and restored the employees’ seniority to its original position, holding that an administrative lapse could not be used to deprive employees of rights that had already accrued to them.