1. Petitioner was appointed as a typist in the SDA cadre, on 21.06.1985, in the District and Sessions Court, Kodagu District, Madikeri. Thereafter, on her own request, the petitioner was transferred to Mysore Unit on 29.09.1994. She has reported to duty at Mysore Unit on 17.10.1994. She was promoted in the Mysore Unit, to the cadre of FDA, on 15.11.2010. She having submitted representation for fixation of her seniority, at the appropriate serial number and cadre, in the seniority list and promote to the cadre to which she was entitled to and the requested having been rejected by the District and Sessions Judge, Mysore, on 27.02.2013, feeling aggrieved, this writ petition was filed to quash the said rejection and to direct the respondent to treat her as senior to Smt. Kavery B.R., whose name appears in the common provisional seniority list of FDA and senior typists, working in Mysore Unit, as on 01.03.2013.

2. Sri Santhosh S. Nagarale, learned advocate, contended that the petitioner having been appointed as 'typist' in SDA cadre on 21.06.1985 at Kodagu Unit and upon transfer to Mysore Unit on 29.09.1994, having been promoted as FDA on 15.11.2010, while preparing the seniority list, the length of service of the petitioner from 21.06.1985 has not been considered and thus, the impugned decision being arbitrary and illegal is liable to be quashed.

3. The point for consideration is, whether the seniority of the petitioner who was transferred on her own request from Kodagu Unit to Mysore Unit should be reckoned from the date of her initial appointment to the post or from the date on which she joined to new District/Unit?

4. In exercise of the power conferred by the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution of India and in supersession of all existing rules on the subject, the Governor of Karnataka has made the Rules called, the Karnataka Government Servants' (Seniority), Rules, 1957, published in the Karnataka Gazette, dated 20.02.1958, vide Notification No.GAD(OM)14 GRR 57, dated 07.02.1958. Rule 6 therein, reads as follows:

"6. The transfer of a person in public interest from one class or grade of a service to another class or grade carrying the same pay or scale of pay shall not be treated as first appointment to the latter for purposes of seniority; and the seniority of a person so transferred shall be determined with reference to his first appointment to the class or grade from which he was transferred:

Provided that, where the transfer is made at the request of the officer, he shall be placed in the seniority list of the class or grade of service to which he is transferred below all the officers borne on that class or grade of service on or before the date of the transfer.

Provided further, that the seniority of a person transferred in public interest vis-a-vis the persons actually holding the post in the Class or Grade to which he is transferred shall be determined on the date of such transfer with reference t-e his first appointment to the class or grade from which he was transferred."

(emphasis supplied)

5. A perusal of the first proviso of the aforesaid Rule, shows that, if the transfer is made at the request of the officer, then the transferee officer shall be placed at the bottom of the seniority list of the officers borne on the same cadre or grade of service, on or before the date of the transfer.

6. Order No.LCA-II.76/94, Bangalore, dated 29.09.1994, transferring the petitioner from the Unit of Kodagu-Madikeri, to the Unit of Mysore, in the existing vacancy, reads as follows:

"Smt. Elize Mascarenhas, Second Division Assistant working in the Court of Civil Judge, Virajpet is transferred from the Unit of Kodagu - Madikeri to the Unit of Mysore in the existing vacancy.

The above official is not entitled for T.A. and joining time, since the transfer is ordered at her own request. The seniority of the official shall be counted in the Unit of Mysore and she shall become junior to juniormost Second Division Assistant