Regularized Sindh contractual employees' seniority to count from March, 2013: Supreme Court

ISLAMABAD, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Jun, 2026) The Supreme Court of Pakistan has ruled that the seniority of contractual employees regularised under the Sindh Regularisation Act, 2013, shall be counted from March 25, 2013, the date on which the law came into force.

According to the detailed judgment, a two-member bench comprising Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar and Justice Musarrat Hilali set aside the January 27, 2025 decision of the Sindh Service Tribunal and allowed the appeals filed by the petitioners.

The Court noted that the petitioners had been appointed as Assistant Directors (BPS-17) on a contract basis in 2006. Their services were regularised under the Sindh (Regularisation of Ad-hoc and Contract Employees) Act, 2013. Subsequently, through a notification issued on January 16, 2018, their regularisation was declared effective from March 25, 2013.

The Supreme Court held that under Section 3 of the 2013 Act, the “deeming clause” and the “non-obstante clause” provide that such employees shall be deemed to have been regularly appointed from the date of enforcement of the law.

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The Court observed that this legal fiction could not be ignored.

The judgment stated that while preparing the final seniority list of Deputy Directors (BPS-18), the department recorded the petitioners’ date of regular appointment as January 16, 2018, instead of March 25, 2013, which was contrary to the law and previously issued notifications.

The Court further observed that the Sindh Service Tribunal had failed to properly consider the legal effect of the 2013 Act and its deeming clause. Since the law itself treats the employees as regular from March 25, 2013, all consequential benefits, including seniority, must also flow from that date.

The Supreme Court held that the general principle under which seniority is counted from the date of a regularisation notification was not applicable in the present case because the statute itself had created a legal fiction.

The Court directed the Sindh Government to revise the petitioners’ seniority by recognizing March 25, 2013 as the effective date and to determine their service rights accordingly in accordance with the relevant rules and law.