ORDER

The Writ on hand has been instituted, questioning the order of rejection, rejecting the claim of the petitioner for notional promotion with retrospective effect in various cadres as Block Development Officer, Assistant Director of Rural Development and Joint Director on par with his junior by counting the entire service of the petitioner in the Agriculture Department and extend all monetary benefits including revised pension with arrears.

2. The petitioner states that the Government has sanctioned 415 posts of Village Level Workers in the year 1965 for implementing Intensive Agricultural Area Programme for stepping up Agriculture Production in various blocks. The petitioner was appointed as Agricultural Assistant (Village Level Worker) on 11.10.1971 in the Office of the Deputy Director of Agriculture. The Government took a decision to absorb the Village Level Workers as permanent employees and accordingly, the petitioner was also absorbed as a permanent employee in the post of Gramasevak Grade-II in the Rural Development Department.

3. The petitioner was transferred to Rural Development Department for appointment as Gramasevak Grade-II and posted at Madurai Panchayat Union, Madurai District on 01.02.1979. Thereafter, he was transferred to his native District at Coimbatore and posted as Gramasevak Grade-II. The transfer to the native District was made based on his request. The service of the petitioner was regularized in the post of Gramasevak Grade-II and the petitioner was admittedly promoted to the post of Assistant, Extension Officer, Deputy Block Development Officer and Block Development Officer. The petitioner retired from service on attaining the age of superannuation.

4. The grievance of the petitioner is that the period of service rendered by him as Village Level Worker was not taken into consideration for the purpose of fixation of seniority and to calculate the qualifying service for pensionary benefits. In the event of regularizing the service in the post of Village Level Worker, the petitioner would have got an opportunity of further promotion to the posts of Assistant Director of Rural Development and Joint Director, as his juniors were already promoted upto to the level of Joint Director of Rural Development.

5. The learned counsel for the petitioner mainly contended that the petitioner, on his absorption as Gramasevak Grade-II, joined in the said post and served continuously and retired from service. The similarly placed persons, during the relevant point of time, made a representation to the authorities to revise their seniority by taking into consideration the services rendered by them as Village Level Workers. The other similarly placed persons filed Original Application before the Tamil Nadu Administrative Tribunal and the matter went upto the Division Bench of this Court and the Division Bench passed an order on 19.04.2005 in W.P.Nos.19960 to 19962 of 1998. Based on the judgement of the Division Bench, the writ petitioners therein were granted the benefit of revision of seniority and retrospective promotion on notional basis with prospective monetary benefits. Thus, the petitioner herein also submitted a representation to extend the said benefits, as the Division Bench also made an observation that the Government should be a model employer and the seniority should be revised in respect of other similarly placed persons. Based on the representation, the District Collector also passed an order in proceedings dated 11.03.2011, extending the benefit of revision of seniority and other consequential benefits including notional promotion. However, the said order has not been implemented by the competent authorities and thereby, they have failed to be a moder employer.

6. The learned counsel for the petitioner contended that in view of the fact that the order passed by the District Collector was not implemented, the petitioner approached this Court by filing W.P.No.30815 of 2013 and this Court passed an order on