Long Ad Hoc Service Not Counted for Seniority or Promotion

The answer turns on how you were first brought in

Ad hoc service counts for seniority in some cases and not in others, and the difference lies almost entirely in the paperwork of your first appointment. If you were eligible under the recruitment rules, were picked through something close to the regular selection process, and then carried on without any break until a formal regularisation order, the law leans towards counting your ad hoc years. If you were put in a vacancy to keep the work going, without the rules being followed and without a proper selection, the law leans the other way.

Most employees who come to us start with the wrong document. They bring the regularisation order and the latest seniority list. Both matter, but the case is usually won or lost on the order that first put you in the chair, the advertisement or circular that invited applications, and whatever record exists of the selection. Advocate B.K. Singh asks for the first appointment order before anything else, because the wording in it, and what lies behind that wording, decides which side of the line you fall on.

This page deals with ad hoc service in a post you were later regularised in, and with ad hoc promotions that were later made regular. If your problem is that you are still casual, contractual or daily rated and want to be absorbed at all, that is a different fight, covered under casual labour and temporary status claims.

What the Supreme Court has said about ad hoc service

Which kind of ad hoc were you? A rough sorting

What DoPT's own instructions say about ad hoc appointments

DoPT has for decades told ministries that ad hoc appointments and promotions are a last resort. The instructions say they should be made only where regular appointment is held up, should be for short periods (generally not beyond one year without approval), and should be given to eligible persons in order of seniority. The same instructions say that ad hoc service does not give any right to regular appointment or to seniority. Departments quote that line in nearly every rejection letter.

That line does not end the matter. A government instruction cannot cut down what the Constitution Bench has said about service rendered after a proper selection. Where the department itself called a regular selection by another name, or kept you ad hoc for six or eight years while it delayed the DPC or the recruitment rules, tribunals look at the substance. The longer and more regular the arrangement, the harder it is for the department to call it fortuitous.

The general seniority instructions (DoPT's consolidated OM of 4 March 2014, carrying forward the principles of 1986) fix seniority in the order of merit of the selection and say regular appointment is the starting point. Read them along with your own department's recruitment rules. Some recruitment rules, especially older ones in technical and scientific organisations, contain their own clause on counting ad hoc or officiating service, and a specific clause in the rules for your post will usually prevail over a general OM.

Seniority, promotion eligibility, MACP and pension are four separate questions

People often assume that if ad hoc service counts for one thing it counts for all. It does not, and mixing them up leads to badly framed claims.

Seniority is about your place in the list against others in the grade. This is where Direct Recruit applies most directly, and where the most fighting happens because every gain for you is a loss for someone else.

Eligibility for promotion is about whether you have the years of service the recruitment rules for the next post require. Most rules say 'regular service' in the feeder grade. Ad hoc service is generally not counted unless the rules or a specific order say so, or unless your seniority claim succeeds and your regular service is treated as starting earlier. Even when the ad hoc years do not count, many recruitment rules carry a note that when juniors with full eligibility service are considered, their seniors are considered too, provided they are short of the required service by no more than half of it or two years, whichever is less. Check whether your rules have that note.

MACP counts regular service from the date of regular appointment in the direct entry grade. The scheme's conditions say service on an ad hoc or contract basis before regular appointment is not to be counted. If your seniority is pushed back by a tribunal order treating the ad hoc service as regular, the MACP dates should follow, but you may have to ask for that separately. The MACP upgradation page covers those disputes.

Pension is the most forgiving of the four. The pension rules have long counted temporary or officiating service that runs without a break into regular appointment. Many employees whose seniority claim fails still get their ad hoc years counted for qualifying service, which can matter a great deal for someone close to the ten-year minimum or the twenty-year mark for voluntary retirement.

Questions to answer from your own appointment papers

• Was the post you joined a sanctioned post, and was it vacant on a long-term basis or only for a short spell?
• Did you meet the educational and experience requirements of the recruitment rules on the day you joined?
• Was there an advertisement, an employment exchange requisition or an internal circular inviting names?
• Was there a written test, interview or selection committee, and is there a merit list?
• Was any step missing, such as UPSC or SSC consultation, reservation roster, or approval of the competent authority?
• Did the regularisation order regularise that same appointment, or did it make a fresh appointment after a fresh selection?
• Was there any break, even of a day, between your ad hoc spells or before regularisation?
• Did others appointed in the same batch get their ad hoc service counted by any order or judgment?

Ad hoc promotions inside the department

The second large group of cases involves people who were already regular in a lower grade and were promoted ad hoc to a higher one because the DPC had not met. They may stay ad hoc for years. When the DPC finally sits, it often draws a panel for a later vacancy year and places some juniors above them, or simply fixes everyone's seniority from the date of the regular promotion order.

The general position is that ad hoc promotion does not count for seniority in the promoted grade, and regular promotion runs from the date of the DPC-based order. Two things can change that. First, if the delay in holding DPCs was the department's own failure, DoPT's instructions require panels to be drawn year-wise for each vacancy year, so that people are placed against the year their vacancy arose; a single combined panel that ignores vacancy years is open to challenge. Second, where you held the higher post for years against a clear regular vacancy, met every condition, and the department kept you ad hoc only because it would not hold the DPC, some tribunals have been willing to look closely at the effective date. That is not guaranteed and depends on facts.

If you were sent back to the lower post after an ad hoc spell, the issues are different again. The guide on reversion after ad hoc promotion deals with that. If the year-wise panel point applies to you, see the guide on vacancy year and panel year in a delayed DPC.

When the real fight is about regularisation itself

Some readers have not been regularised at all. Secretary, State of Karnataka v. Umadevi (2006) held that people appointed outside the constitutional scheme of open recruitment have no right to be regularised, while allowing a one-time exercise for those who had worked ten years or more in sanctioned posts without court orders. Later cases, including Dharam Singh v. State of U.P. (August 2025), have criticised departments that regularise some and leave others in the same position, and have looked unkindly at long use of 'temporary' labels for permanent work.

Seniority questions arise only once you are regular. If you are still waiting, the first job is to get regularised, and the claim for counting past service comes after. Asking for both in one go sometimes works, but often the tribunal grants regularisation and leaves seniority to be worked out by the department, which then brings you back to the same argument.

From a written objection to the tribunal

These steps assume you are already regular and want the ad hoc years counted.

1. Get the papers, including the ones you never saw

   Ask for your appointment file, the selection committee minutes, the merit list and the regularisation file. If the office will not give them, an RTI application usually brings the minutes; the guide on using RTI for DPC minutes and service files shows how to frame it.

2. Object to the seniority list when it is circulated

   If a tentative list is out, file your objection within the time stated. Say exactly which ad hoc period you want counted and why, quoting the selection details. Objections at this stage cost nothing and often get a reasoned reply, which you will need later. The seniority list objection page explains how lists are prepared.

3. Send a representation through proper channel

   If there is no list pending, write to the authority that fixes seniority for your cadre, through your controlling officer. Keep it to the facts and the law; attach the documents. Under Section 20 of the Administrative Tribunals Act you should ordinarily give the department up to six months to decide.

4. Read the reply carefully

   A rejection that only repeats 'ad hoc service does not confer seniority' without dealing with your selection papers is a weak order and is often set aside for want of reasons. A reply that says your appointment was made without any selection needs to be answered with evidence, not argument.

5. File an Original Application

   If the reply is against you, or six months pass without one, you can file an OA before the CAT bench for your place of posting. Ask for the seniority order to be quashed, for your ad hoc service to be counted from a stated date, and for consequential promotion review. Name the affected juniors as respondents.

6. Watch the one-year clock

   Section 21 gives one year from the final order, or one year after the six months run out on an unanswered representation. Writing again and again does not restart it. If you are late, you need a condonation of delay application with an honest explanation.

If the tribunal rules in your favour, the department must refix seniority and hold review DPCs for any promotions you missed. That second stage takes time of its own, and it is worth keeping a dated record of every letter you send while waiting.

Papers that decide these cases

How long it takes and what it costs

Which CAT bench, and who must go elsewhere

An OA is filed before the CAT bench within whose territory you are posted, or where the order was passed. Rule 6 of the CAT (Procedure) Rules also lets a retired employee file where he or she ordinarily lives. If you are posted in Uttarakhand, note that since a notification of July 2023 those cases go to the Principal Bench in New Delhi rather than Allahabad. Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh cases go to the Jammu and Srinagar Benches.

Seniority cases often involve people posted across a zone or the whole country. If the seniority list is all-India and the authority sits in Delhi, filing at the Principal Bench may make sense even if you are posted elsewhere, because part of the cause of action arose there. Where two employees file at different benches on the same list, the Chairman can transfer cases under Section 25 so that one bench hears them together.

The CAT does not cover everyone. CAPF personnel (CRPF, BSF, CISF, ITBP, SSB), employees of public sector companies and nationalised banks, and staff of bodies not notified under Section 14(2) of the Act go to the High Court by writ; the page on writs for CAPF, PSU and bank staff covers that route. State government employees go to their state administrative tribunal where one exists, or to the High Court. Members of the armed forces go to the Armed Forces Tribunal, but civilians in defence establishments come to the CAT.

How this plays out in different departments

Railways. Ad hoc promotions are common where selections are held up, and the Railway Board's own instructions on ad hoc arrangements and on seniority apply alongside the IREM. Railway staff who held a post ad hoc for long periods before a selection often find that the selection panel, not the ad hoc order, fixes seniority. The arguments are the same; the documents are railway ones.

Postal staff. The problem shows up most among those who officiated in higher posts while departmental examinations were delayed. Gramin Dak Sevaks are a separate category with their own engagement rules, and GDS service is generally not treated as regular departmental service for seniority, though it has been counted for some limited purposes.

Defence civilians. In ordnance, MES and other establishments, many tradesmen and clerical staff were engaged on ad hoc or casual terms before being brought on regular establishment. Check whether the establishment's own orders counted that service. The ordnance factories were corporatised in 2021, which adds a further layer; see the guide on ordnance factory employees after 2021 if that applies to you.

Scientists and teachers. Laboratories and central schools sometimes appointed people on ad hoc or project posts and later absorbed them. Whether the CAT hears such cases depends on whether the organisation has been notified under Section 14(2); check this first. Group A officers in organised services face a narrower path, because their recruitment is through UPSC and ad hoc service before UPSC selection is rarely counted.

Where these claims usually go wrong

• Arguing length of service alone. Ten years ad hoc does not count merely because it is ten years. The tribunal wants to know how you came in.
• Not naming the people who would move down. A seniority order passed without hearing those affected is liable to be recalled. The guide on affected juniors as necessary parties explains who must be joined.
• Waiting for the final list. If you stayed silent at the tentative stage and through two DPCs, the department will plead settled seniority and delay, and tribunals often agree.
• Relying on a colleague's judgment without checking his facts. An order in someone else's favour helps only if your appointment was made the same way. Read it closely before you cite it.
• Asking for arrears that do not exist. Counting ad hoc service for seniority usually brings notional benefits and future promotions, not years of back pay. Ask for what the law can give.

Juniors who would move down have a right to be heard

Every seniority claim has a cost to someone. If your ad hoc years count, the people now above you drop. They are entitled to be heard before that happens, and a tribunal order passed behind their backs is vulnerable. In practice this means naming them as respondents, or at least the representative few, and serving them. Where the numbers are large, the tribunal may allow notice by publication or through the department.

There is a related point about settled seniority. Courts are slow to disturb a seniority list that has stood for many years and on which promotions have been made. A claim filed promptly after the list is published stands on firmer ground than one filed after people have been promoted and retired on the strength of it. This is the main reason Advocate B.K. Singh tells clients not to sit on a seniority grievance hoping it will sort itself out at the next DPC.

What to do this week

Find your first appointment order and read every word of it. Then write down, on one page, the date you joined, how you were selected, the date of regularisation, any breaks, and the names of the first few people now above you with their joining dates. If you do not have the selection minutes, send the RTI application now; it costs Rs 10 and the reply will tell you whether you have a seniority case or only a pension point.

If a tentative seniority list is open for objections, file the objection before the closing date even if your papers are incomplete, and say that documents will follow. For advice on your appointment papers or for updates on how the courts are treating ad hoc service, contact Advocate B.K. Singh.