Employee transferred on request can’t claim seniority over new circle cadre: HC

Employee transferred on request can’t claim seniority over new circle cadre: HC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  24.09.2024 

Bengaluru : An employee transferred on his request to another circle and who has given consent and an undertaking for giving up the seniority in the circle where he is transferred, cannot march over the seniority positions in the transferred circle cadre, the high court ruled recently. A division bench made this observation while allowing a writ appeal filed by state-owned Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Limited (KPTCL) and two other electricity distribution companies. The case pertains to five employees, three from Udupi circle and one each from Mandya and Hassan circles, who were transferred to Tumakuru circle during 2008-09 upon their requests. They are presently serving as mechanics. 

Aspiring to get promotion to the post of junior engineer under the 10% quota reserved for inservice candidates, they claimed that the length of their services should be counted (for the purpose of promotion) from the date of their entry in service, ever since they served in the previous circle, in terms of the earlier resolution of 2020. The single bench directed KPTCL to consider the case of petitioners for promotion reckoning their seniority from the date of their joining duty. 

The KPTCL challenged the same, arguing that clauses in the Karnataka Electricity Board Employees Seniority Regulations provide for foregoing of seniority by the transferred employee when the employee himself opts for another circle. The division bench noted that if the transferred employee is given seniority in the transferred circle on the basis of his date of entry in service in the previous circle, the entire circle-wise seniority will go topsy-turvy and chaos would ensue. The seniority for the purpose of promotion in two circle cadres cannot be mixed up. The single judge proceeded on a wrong footing to view that the stipulations in the transfer policy were in contradiction to regulations. 

The petitioners  who got themselves transferred upon their own request to another circle, in light of the regulations and the cadre position, cannot claim seniority over the employees in the transferred cadre for promotion, the bench observed