Supreme Court of Pakistan
Sahibzada Hassan Ali and others v. Government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa through Chief Secretary, Peshawar and others
Published on this website
Civil Petitions Nos. 5091 to 5093 of 2025 and Civil Petitions Nos. 986-P to 988-P of 2025
Citation: Approved for reporting; reported citation not assigned in the supplied judgment
Background
Background
The Supreme Court restored employees' seniority, holding that a six-year Gazette delay caused by the government could not defeat statutory regularization from 7 March 2018.
Project employees regularized under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Employees (Regularization of Services) Act, 2018 were treated as regular from 7 March 2018 and appeared above later appointees in successive seniority lists. Their 2018 regularization notifications were not published in the Official Gazette until 21 August 2024, although the eventual publication retained the statutory 2018 effective date.
Questions of publication and seniority
Questions of publication and seniority
Whether the government's delay until 21 August 2024 in publishing 2018 regularization notifications postponed the employees' statutory regularization and seniority, despite the 2018 Act and the notifications fixing 7 March 2018 as the effective date.
Court holding
What the Court decided
No. On the particular statutory and factual record, Gazette publication was directory and the six-year delay was a procedural administrative lapse rather than a fatal defect. The beneficial status accrued from 7 March 2018, and seniority had to be determined under section 6(2) by continuous officiation. The State could not use its own publication failure to prejudice the employees.
Final outcome
Final outcome
The six civil petitions were converted into appeals and allowed. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Service Tribunal's consolidated judgment dated 12 September 2025 was set aside, and the petitioners' seniority was restored to its original condition.
Practical effect
What the decision means in practice
The six civil petitions were converted into appeals and allowed. The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Service Tribunal's consolidated judgment dated 12 September 2025 was set aside, and the petitioners' seniority was restored to its original condition.
This summary states the immediate effect recorded in the decision. The original judgment and the facts of the particular case remain controlling.
Key legal principles
Key legal principles
- Official publication remains a fundamental rule-of-law requirement, particularly where an instrument imposes a burden, penalty, tax, liability or restriction.
- A Gazette-publication clause may be directory where the parent law states no nullifying consequence, the instrument is beneficial and remedial, substantial compliance exists and no prejudice is shown.
- Where the statute itself confers regular status from a fixed commencement date, later administrative publication may formally record rather than create that status.
- The State cannot use its own unexplained publication delay to defeat an employment status or service consequence that eligible employees had already earned under the statute.
- Inter-se seniority must be determined under the specific statutory seniority formula; section 6(2) of the 2018 Act uses continuous officiation and age as the tie-breaker.
- A beneficial notification confirming an existing statutory position is legally different from a retrospective executive instrument that curtails vested rights or creates new liabilities.
- The result depended on continuous service, the same 2018 effective date in the eventual Gazette publication, the parties' knowledge, absence of demonstrated prejudice and lack of an express invalidating consequence.
- The decision does not create a universal right to regularization and does not make Gazette publication generally optional.
Pakistan relevance
Pakistan relevance
For Pakistani service-law litigation, counsel should prove the complete statutory chain: coverage, commencement, eligibility, continuous service, the notification's effective date, the Gazette record, the cause of delay and the separate rule governing seniority. The case is strongest where publication confirms a beneficial statute-created status and no adverse third-party consequence is shown.
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Primary source
Original judgment and official source
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Later treatment
Later treatment
No later judicial treatment or reported citation has been added. The supplied judgment states that it was approved for reporting. Verify the official court record, current statutory text and later treatment before formal reliance.
Pinpoint research
Exact paragraph and citation links
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Judgment of Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar19 paragraphs
Connected petitions challenge the Service Tribunal judgment
Identifies the six civil petitions directed against the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Service Tribunal's consolidated judgment dated 12 September 2025 in Service Appeals Nos. 1427 to 1429 of 2024.
Regularization, seniority lists and six-year Gazette delay
Sets out the 2016 project appointments, regularization from 7 March 2018, seniority lists beginning in 2019, delayed Gazette publication on 21 August 2024 and the Tribunal's decision to set aside the 2024 list.
Employees rely on section 6 and departmental responsibility
Records the employees' argument that inter-se seniority was governed by section 6 and that delayed publication by the department or Government Printing Press could not outweigh regularization conferred by the 2018 Act.
Private respondents rely on publication under section 5(iv)
Records the argument that regularization and seniority could operate only from Gazette publication because section 5(iv) says services are deemed regularized only on publication of employees' names.
Provincial government supports the earlier seniority position
Records the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government's submission that employees regularized on 7 March 2018 were senior to the Tribunal appellants who joined later in 2018.
Undisputed statutory date and delayed publication
Finds it undisputed that the project employees were regularized with effect from 7 March 2018 and that lower departmental staff and the Government Printing Press delayed publication until 21 August 2024.
Successive lists placed petitioners above later appointees
Records that the petitioners appeared senior in the lists for 2019 through 2023 and that the competing employees first sought correction in 2024.
Sections 3 and 4 deem regular status from commencement
Explains that qualifying ad hoc and project employees holding posts at commencement are deemed validly appointed on a regular basis from the commencement of the 2018 Act, subject to verification.
Publication condition and statutory seniority formula
Reproduces section 5(iv)'s publication condition and section 6's seniority regime, including section 6(2)'s rule of continuous officiation and age as the tie-breaker.
Section 20A of the General Clauses Act invoked
Records reliance on the rule that orders, regulations and circulars having the effect of law must be published in the Official Gazette.
Sohail Ahmed principles on notification and publication
Restates seven propositions distinguishing retrospective burdens and rights-changing notifications from validly published official action and explains the ordinary legal significance of Gazette publication.
Court frames the mandatory-versus-directory inquiry
Acknowledges the need for accessible law but asks whether this delayed beneficial notification was a procedural error or fatal flaw, and whether absence of an express nullifying consequence makes publication directory.
Employees cannot be victims of administrative lapse
Emphasizes continuous service, knowledge of the 2018 legislation, the unchanged effective date and the lack of justification for allowing later appointees to overtake the regularized project employees.
Statutory status accrued before formal ratification
Holds that late publication did not invalidate retroactive regularization because the Act conferred the right from commencement and the notification formally ratified that statutory position.
No-prejudice rule applied to State delay
Treats the notification as beneficial rather than burdensome, rejects prejudice caused by inter-departmental delay and applies the principle that neither Court nor State should benefit from its own wrong.
Government's duty as a model employer
Describes the State's duty to act fairly, avoid technical exploitation and process recruitment, promotions, pensions, seniority and regularization without inordinate delay.
Good governance requires timely paperwork
Holds that an employee cannot be made a scapegoat for administrative or bureaucratic delay and places responsibility on government to comply with service rules on time.
Authorities on directory publication and substantial compliance
Surveys Pakistani and Indian authorities concerning Gazette publication, substantial compliance, beneficial instruments, delayed notice and the absence of a statutory consequence for non-compliance.
Appeals allowed and original seniority restored
Converts the civil petitions into appeals, allows them, sets aside the Service Tribunal judgment and restores the petitioners' seniority to its original condition.
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