The Supreme Court has reinstated the Controller General of Accounts Recruitment Rules 2014 and set aside a Federal Service Tribunal (FST) decision that had struck them down and ordered them rewritten. In its written judgment, Justice Ayesha A Malik found that the tribunal had gone beyond its powers by interfering in policy matters and instructing the executive to reformulate recruitment rules.
The court said the tribunal could not take over the role of the executive or direct the government to frame fresh rules, and that it should have kept within its legal limits.
Tribunal ruling over the rules and the employee’s promotion
The dispute began when a government employee challenged the 2014 rules before the FST, arguing that they did not give him the promotion route he wanted. On October 17, 2022, the tribunal declared the rules invalid and directed the authorities to revise them.
The Supreme Court noted that the same employee had already been promoted from junior auditor to senior auditor on January 1, 2021, under the rules he later contested. It held that a direct move from junior auditor to assistant accounts officer was not a legal entitlement.
Government authority and approvals of recruitment amendments
The judgment said the government had the power to amend service structures and recruitment rules according to administrative needs. It pointed out that in May 2019, the promotion quota from junior auditor to senior auditor (BS-16) had been raised from 10 per cent to 50 per cent.
The court also observed that the Establishment Division had approved amendments in 2017, 2019 and 2021. Later approvals and the continued implementation of the rules, it said, supported their legal validity. Citing Article 212 of the Constitution, the court said tribunal jurisdiction covers only the terms and conditions of government employees’ service, and tribunals should not intervene where recruitment rules do not infringe fundamental or legal rights.
The FST had earlier invalidated the rules because initial approval from the Establishment Division had not been obtained.
Separate Khyber Pakhtunkhwa seniority and regularisation judgment
In a separate matter, the Supreme Court had earlier set aside a service tribunal ruling on the seniority of employees in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and ordered that their seniority be restored to its original position. A 13-page judgment written by Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar held that their regularisation would take effect from March 7, 2018.
It also ruled that the delay in publishing their regularisation notifications in the official gazette could not prejudice their legal rights.
