SENIORITY RULES & REGULATING FOR GAZETTED RAILWAY EMPLOYEE
327. General The rules contained in Rule 328 to 336 of this Section lay down the principles that may be followed or determining the relative seniority of Group 'A', Junior Scale officers of all the services on Indian Railways except the officers of Medical, Railway Protection Force, Chemists and Metallurgists, Printing and Stationery, Rajbhasha departments and other miscellaneous categories.
328. The Seniority of officers, appointed to various Indian Railway Services Group 'A' , Junior Scale shall be determined on the basis of the 'date for increment on the time scale' ( DITS) to be specifically determined in each case in accordance with the principles in the following paragraphs.
329. Unless otherwise stated, officers appointed to the Indian Railway Services, Group 'A' (earlier referred to as Class-I) on the basis of competitive examinations held by the Union Public Service Commission upto 1985 Examination batch and Special Class Railway Apprentices (SCRAs) upto 1982 batch, shall count service for seniority, from the date they commence earning increments in the regular scale as Junior Scale Officers in Group 'A' (earlier referred to as Assistant Officers) subject to the condition that the inter-se seniority of officers in each service recruited as probationers in a particular year shall be regulated by their place in the order of merit.
330. Unless otherwise stated, officers appointed to the Indian Railway Services (Group 'A' ) on the basis of competition examinations held by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) w.e.f. 1986 Examination batch and Special Class Railway Apprentices (SCRAs) w.e.f. 1983 batch, shall count service for seniority from the date they commence earning increments in the regular scale as Junior Scale Officers in Group 'A' subject to the condition that the inter-se seniority of officers in each service recruited as probationers in a particular year will be regulated by their place in the order of merit, which shall be determined on the basis of marks obtained by them during the probationary training and at the competitive examination conducted by the Union Public Service Commission (Apprenticeship training in the case of SCRAs). For this purpose, the marks obtained in the competitive examination conducted by UPSC (Apprenticeship training in the case of SCRAS) and those obtained during probationary training shall be reduced/ increased to the base of 2050 and 1250 respectively.
Provided further that if two or more probationers have secured equal number of marks in the aggregate. their order of merit shall be the order of their dates of birth, the older ranking senior.
331. In the case of officers, recruited otherwise than through the regular competitive examinations and who may be granted higher initial pay on recruitment, the date for increment on time scale for the purpose of seniority, shall be so adjusted as to allow suitable credit in assigning seniority.
332. Officers recruited as Temporary Assistant Officers (Unclassified), on permanent appointment to the Junior Scale (Class I) in various Indian Railway Services may be granted weightage in seniority on the basis of half of the length, of the service, counted from the date of their joining service as Temporary Assistant Officers (Unclassified) to the date of their permanent appointment to the Junior Scale (Class I) of the respective service, subject to a maximum weightage of five years.
333. The order of selection by the Union Public Service Commission of officers, who are permanently appointed to the Junior Scale (Class I) from amongst Temporary Assistant Officers shall not be disturbed irrespective of the weightage worked out in accordance with principle mentioned at para 332 above. The Government will be at liberty, to restrict the date for increment on time scale in the case of an officer with longer service as Temporary Assistant Officer so as to place him in seniority below an officer who has been assigned a higher position based on merit although such an officer might have rendered lesser service as Temporary Assistant Officer.
334. In the case of Group 'B' officers permanently promoted to Junior Scale of Group 'A' services:
(1) Officers of a particular department promoted from the earlier panel shall rank senior to officers promoted from the later panel.
(2) If two or more than two officers are promoted on the same date, the following method shall be followed to determine their inter-se seniority within the Railway:-
(i) The relative seniority of officers of each Railway shall be in the order of their position in the panel for that Railway.
(ii) The DITS of the above officers, shall be determined by giving weightage based on:
(a) the year of service connoted by the initial pay on permanent promotion to Group 'A' service; or
(b) half the total number of years of continuous service in Group 'B', both officiating, and permanent;
whichever is more, subject to a maximum of 5 years; provided that the weightage so assigned does not exceed the total non-fortuitous service rendered by the officer in Group 'B'.
(iii) The DITS of the junior officer(s) in any Railway shall not be earlier than the DITS of his immediate senior in the same panel.
(3) The integrated seniority of the officers on All Indian Railways basis, shall be determined as under:-
(i) The integrated seniority shall be on the basis of DITS, the officers having earlier DITS being senior.
(ii) The inter-se seniority of officers having same DITS shall be in the order of the length of non-fortuitous service in Group 'B'.
335. As permanent promotion from Group 'B' to Group 'A' (Junior Scale) service and permanent appointment of Temporary Assistant Officers to Junior Scale (Class-I) involves definite act of selection, the inter-se seniority of officers in each of the categories will be regulated by the date of permanent promotion or permanent appointment to Group 'A' Junior Scale services/ Class - I.
336. Officers, permanently appointed to the Group 'A' Junior Scale from the category mentioned at paragraphs 333 and 334 above, against quotas of vacancies reserved for them shall be placed below or above a particular batch of direct recruits accordingly as their DITS are earlier or later than the earliest date on which any one of the direct recruits in a particular batch joins service.
337. The seniority of officers, recruited to Group 'A' Junior Scale under the provision of the rules relating to 'Occasional admission of other qualified persons' shall be determined by the Government on the merits of each case.
338. Seniority of the released Emergency Commissioned Officers or Short Service Commissioned Officers appointed to various Indian Railway Services against vacancies reserved for them shall be determined keeping in view the instructions issued by the Cabinet Secretariat/ Department of Personnel and Training.
339. In regard to officers appointed to the Indian Railway Medical Service at Group 'A' Junior Scale level on the basis of Combined Medical Services Examination held by the Union Public Service Commission their inter-se seniority in a particular year shall be regulated by their place in the order of merit.
340. In regard to Senior Scale/ Junior Scale posts in miscellaneous categories viz; Chemists and Metallurgists, Senior Rajbhasha Adhikaris', printing and Stationery department and Organisation of the Chief Mining Adviser, where both direct recruitment and promotion is resorted to, the relative seniority of direct recruits and promotees shall be determined according to rotation of vacancies between the direct recruits and promotees which will be based on the quotas of vacancies reserved for direct recruitment and promotion, respectivly in the relevant recruitment rules.
341. In cases not covered by the above principles, seniority of officers appointed to the service shall be governed by such orders as may be issued by the Government in consultation with the UPSC, wherever necessary.
(Authority : Railway Board's letter No. E(O)I/99/SR-6/2 dated 28.02.2003.)
