The Supreme Court dismissed and disposed of the appeal filed by directly recruited assistant conservators of forest (ACFs), who pleaded that the date of joining the training be considered as the date of appointment for the purpose of seniority. The decision will pave the way for filling over 85 vacant posts of divisional forest officers (DFOS) in the state, which were lying vacant for a long, with several ACFS holding dual charge of DFOS in various departments.

The method of recruitment for the ACF post is twofold – nomination (direct appointment) and promotion. Recruits to ACF by promotion assume charge from the day they are promoted and are not required to undergo two years of ACF training and one year of field training like direct recruits.

The matter started in 2015, when directly appointed ACFs moved the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal (MAT), Mumbai, pleading that their date of joining training be the date of appointment. The application was allowed by MAT in response to this the state filed a review petition against this decision but it was rejected. Thereafter, referring to the MAT decision the government on August 14, 2018, granted the date of joining training as the date of appointment for seniority and published the provisional senior ACFs list in January 2019.

The promoter ACFS challenged the government decision and won the case in Aurangabad high court in April 2021. However, direct ACFS appealed against the high court decision in the apex court, and on March 15, the SC ruled in favour of promoting ACFs, who were respondents in the case.