IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS Dated : 30.07.2024 CORAM THE HONOURABLE Ms. JUSTICE P.T. ASHA W.P.No.22479 of 2015 &

M.P.Nos. 1 & 2 of 2015

1.K.K.Manjula

2.A.Ramesh

3.M.Muthukannan 4.K.Meenakumari

5.S.Sudaroli

6.A.Sureshkumar

7.M.Raja

8.V.Chinnaraj

9.M.Manivannan

10.P.Kannan

11.M.Selvakumar

12.P.Sakthivel

13.A.S.R.Selvanarayanasamy

14.R.Periasamy

15.K.Raja

16.T.Poongodi

17.S.Sivaraju 18.V.Ramesh 19.K.Asokan

20.M.Paul Pandi ...Petitioners Vs.

1.The Secretary to Government, Commercial Taxes and Registration Department, Fort St. George, Chennai – 600009.

2.The Inspector General of Registration, No.100, Santhome High Road, Chennai – 600028.

3.The Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission, Represented by its Secretary, Chennai – 600002.

4.Vadivazhagi ...Respondents Prayer: Writ Petition is filed under Article 226 to issue a Writ of Certiorarified Mandamus to call for the records of the 2^nd respondent in his proceedings under letter No.24371/A1/2015 including the order dated 25.06.2015 and quash the same and consequently direct the respondents 1 to 3 to effect fixation of seniority in the cadres of Sub- Registrars Grade-II, Sub Registrars Grade-I, District Registrars and Assistant Inspectors General of Registration, taking the date of appointment of the transferees, appointed as Sub-Registrars Grade II under order dated 07.06.2002 bearing reference No.64749/A3/95 as the said date that is 07.06.2002 and the date of appointment of the petitioners, as Sub Registrars Grade II as 14.09.2000 and 20.08.2001.

For Petitioners : Mr. V.G.Suresh Kumar For Respondents : Mr. LSM. Hasan Fizal

1 & 2 Additional Government Pleader For Respondents : No Appearance

3 & 4

O R D E R

This is a case where despite orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court and clear directions of this Court the 2^nd respondent has decided to ignore the directions of the Court and arrive at a decision which is clearly in conflict with the earlier orders of this Court.

2. The narration of facts leading to the filing of the above writ petition would highlight the above fact. The issue involved in the instant writ petition is the fixation of seniority inter – se between the promotees / transferees and the petitioners herein who are directly recruited Sub Registrars.

3. The petitioners before this Court are direct recruitees as Sub Registrars in respect of vacancies that arose during the years 1996 – 2000. The 4^th respondent and others like her were originally appointed on adhoc basis and not against a regular vacancy under proceedings dated 03.11.1995. Therefore, their appointment can only be considered as appointment under Rule 10 a (i) (1) of the Tamil Nadu State and Subordinate Service Rules, herein after called the Rules. Their services had been regularised in the said post only on 07.06.2002. Therefore, the 4^th respondent and others had been regularised in the post of Sub Registrars only in the year 2002, whereas the petitioners had been directly recruited between the years 1996 – 2000. However, these promotees were placed above the petitioners in seniority.

4. The petitioners had made several representations and had ultimately filed W.P.No.12328 of 2014 for direction to the respondents to implement the order of the Hon'ble Supreme Court passed in K.Madalaimuthu's case reported in 2006 (6) SCC 558 This Court by order dated 31.03.2015 was pleased to direct the 2^nd respondent to issue notice to all the Sub Registrars Grade II and I and other affected parties including petitioners and pass fresh orders determining seniority and inter se seniority in the post of Sub Registrar Grade II and I, District Registrar, Assistant Inspector General of Registration and Deputy Inspector General of Registration, within a period of 3 months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. It was made clear that the direction would not affect the promotion already made to the post of Deputy Inspector General of Registration.

5. However, the 2^nd respondent chose to re-write the orders of the Hon'ble Supreme Court and rejecte