Transferred Assistant Who Forfeited Nilgiris Seniority Loses Bid To Rank Above Salem Recruit Whose Probation Was Declared Before Her Arrival: Madras HC

The petitioner joined the Nilgiris District Revenue Unit as an Assistant in 2012 and later obtained a one-way transfer to the Salem District Revenue Unit, thereby agreeing to forgo her Nilgiris seniority.

Her challenge to the loss of that seniority was dismissed in an earlier writ petition, and her writ appeal was also dismissed.

The Salem seniority list placed her at Serial No. 311 in the 2015–2016 list. She sought to be placed at Serial No. 210A in the 2012–2013 list, immediately above the fifth respondent, G. Jaiganesh, and sought promotion as Deputy Tahsildar from 8 October 2022.

The respondents opposed the claim, stating that Jaiganesh was a Salem-unit recruit whose probation had been declared before the petitioner joined that unit.

The judgment records differing dates for the petitioner’s joining Salem: 13 April 2015, 15 April 2015, and 8 May 2015.

The Court applied the condition in the petitioner’s transfer order, which required her to forgo her seniority in the transferred district and be placed at the bottom of the relevant approved-probationer list.

It also relied on the prior writ proceedings concerning her seniority claim and referred to the Supreme Court’s direction for revision of seniority on merit and preparation of an inter-se list of direct recruits and promotees.

The Court’s governing principle was that a transferee who accepted a condition to forgo seniority could not claim precedence over existing members of the receiving unit; similarly, employees could not be treated as equals merely because they held the same designation.

The petitioner had accepted the transfer condition and had already failed in her earlier challenge to the loss of Nilgiris seniority. The Court construed that condition, together with the earlier proceedings, as requiring her placement at the bottom of the relevant Salem seniority list.

Jaiganesh was a Salem-unit recruit, and his probation had been declared before the petitioner joined Salem; the Court therefore found no basis to treat them as comparable for the seniority claim.

Recasting the relief as a claim to placement above Jaiganesh did not overcome the transfer condition or establish entitlement to parity.

The writ petition was dismissed, with no order as to costs.