The main legal point established in the judgment is that the seniority list should be prepared based on the existing orders in force during the relevant period, and the court may consider revising seniority if mistakenly fixed by the authority.

JUDGMENT

(Prayer: Writ Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying for issuance of a writ of certiorarified mandamus calling for the entire records connected with the impugned order passed by the 2nd respondent vide Memo No.040352/59/G.15/G.151/2014-1 dated 23.05.2015 and quash the same and consequently direct the respondents 1 and 2 to revise the seniority of the petitioner and place him in the appropriate place in the seniority list in Memo No.770/E3/1/89-2 dated 02.09.1989 in the light of the recommendation of the Chief Audit Committee dated 23.04.2010 and by promoting the petitioner as Superintending Engineer/ Mechanical and Chief Engineer/ Mechanical with monetary benefits on par with his Junior Thiru.T.Sankarapandian.)

(1) The writ petition has been filed in the nature of a certiorarified mandamus seeking records relating to an order of the 2nd respondent, Chief Engineer [Personnel], Tamilnadu Generation and Distribution Corporation, Chennai, dated 23.05.2015 and to quash the same and to direct the respondents 1 and 2 to revise the seniority of the petitioner and to place him in the appropriate place in the seniority list in Memo No.770/E3/1/89-2 dated 02.09.1989 in the light of the recommendation of the Chief Audit Committee dated 23.04.2010 and by promoting the petitioner as Superintending Engineer/ Mechanical and Chief Engineer/ Mechanical with monetary benefits on par with his Junior Thiru.T.Sankarapandian.

(2) Even before proceeding to examine the affidavit filed by the petitioner, it is to be noted that the junior of the petitioner namely, Thiru.T.Sankarapandian, has not been made as a party to the writ petition.

(3) The petitioner had been appointed through Employment Exchange as Switch Board Operator in the respondent Electricity Board. He then passed his AMIE examinations in the year 1984 and was appointed as Assistant Engineer/Mechanical through internal selection by a draft panel list of the Board in August 1989 and the seniority list in which the petitioner was placed as Assistant Engineer in the year 1985 is the subject matter of the present writ petition. The petitioner has serious grievances over his placement in which he had been placed as Assistant Engineer. Subsequently, however, it must also be noted that the petitioner had been promoted to the post of Assistant Executive Engineer on 23.05.1994 and as Executive Engineer on 27.4.2012 and as Superintending Engineer/Mechanical on 17.9.2014 and at the time of filing of the writ petition, he was so working as Superintending Engineer/Mechanical. There are no records to show that the petitioner''s promotion was to his disadvantage and that juniors had been promoted ahead of him as Assistant Engineers or as Executive Engineers or as Superintending Engineers. Documents to that effect, that the petitioner had raised a protest at that particular stage about the promotion being denied or rather, delayed and that the juniors had been promoted ahead of him, had not been the bone of contention by the learned counsel for the petitioner and arguments were also not advanced on that particular ground.

(4) The petitioner however, claims that when he was initially posted as Assistant Engineer in the year 1985 through internal selection consequent to passing of the AMIE Examinations in the year 1984, his seniority had been wrongly fixed. In this connection, reference is made to the manner in which the promotion should be given as between direct recruits and those selected through internal selection. The ratio is 1:1. The first place should go to those who had been selected through internal selection and the second place to those who had been selected through direct recruitment. During the course of arguments, a comparison has been made with one another Assistant Engineer by name A.Velmurugan, who had given a representation on 12.03.2007 and taking note of the fact that he had been appointed as direct recruit to the post of Assistant Engineer/Mechanical,