Seniority of government servants appointed through different methods of recruitment has to be determined based on the date of appointment as per Section 40(2) of the Tamil Nadu Government Servants (Conditions of Service) Act, 2016, and not based on the proviso to Section 27(f) of the Act.

A. The Petitions:

The present writ petition is filed challenging the impugned G.O.Ms.No.301, Home (Police-1A) Department, dated 02.08.2021, in and by which, the seniority of the respondents 4 and 5 are fixed as 4 A1 and 4 A2 in the post of Deputy Superintendent of Police [for brevity, hereinafter referred to as “DSP”] for the purpose of considering for promotion to the next higher post of Additional Superintendent of Police [for brevity, hereinafter referred to as “Adl. SP”] (Category – 1) for the year 2020-2021 and the panel vide G.O.Ms.No.325, Home (Police-1A) Department, dated 17.12.2021 prepared for promotion to the post of Adl. SP (Category – 1) for the year 2020-2021 and the consequential Police Note No.2 dated 24.03.2022, promoting and posting them as Adl. SP (Category – 1) for the year 2020-2021.

B. The Case of the Petitioner:

2. The facts, that are relevant for the disposal of the present writ petition, are culled out hereunder:

(i) There were vacancies in the DSP post (Category – 1) in Class II of the Tamil Nadu Police Service. Recruitment to the said post is under the Special Rules framed under Article 309 of the Constitution of India, which read as follows:

Class (1) Method of Appointment (2) Class II Category (1) Deputy Superintendent of Police including those posted as Deputy Assistant Inspector General of Police in the Office of the Inspector General of Police, Tamil Nadu Deputy Supdt. Of Police poted to the Directorate of Vigilance and Anti Corruption and Assistant Comissioners of Police in the Madras City Police, but excluding those posted as (a) Assistant Commissioner (a) Direct recruitment or recruitment by transfer from Inspectors of the Tamil Nadu Police Subordinate Service.

(b) The proportion in which substantive vacancies shall be filled by Direct recruitment and recruitment by transfer shall be 1:2.

of Police, Armed Reserve, Madras City.

(b) Assistant Commissioner of Police, Transport, Madras City, (c) Principal, Police Recruits School, Coimbatore.

(d) Deputy Superintendent of Police, Care Camp and Care Home, Melpakkam (e) Deputy Superintendent of Police, Armed Reserve, Madurai, Ramanathapuram and Tiruchirappalli.

(ii) In 2011-2013, applications were called for among the eligible candidates for appointment to the said post through direct recruitment and according to the selection, the vacancies were filled up. While so, the estimate of vacancies for the year 2012- 2014, which were also included in the said selection list was four.

The following four candidates were selected against the said post:

a. Elambahavath.K. b. Sita.K. c. Shajitha.B.H. d. Dhivya.M.P.(iii) After joining the service, in September 2014 and January, 2015 respectively, two of the candidates, viz.,

Mr.Elambahavath.K and Ms.Sita.K resigned the posts without lien, as they got selected in the Union Public Service Commission.

Thereupon, on 12.01.2016, the Deputy Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission issued a call letter to the candidates who were on the reserve list, viz., Mr K.Velladurai and Mr P.Balakrishnan, who are respondents 4 and 5 herein. Accordingly, after counselling, they were selected by the order dated 28.11.2016 and were deputed for training and after completion of training, they joined the post as DSP on 10.04.2017 and 18.04.2017 respectively.(iv) In the meanwhile, the writ petitioners, who were working in the post of Inspector of Police, were promoted as DSPs by order dated 13.01.2016 and they joined the post immediately and are working in the said post. Apart from the writ petitioners, several other candidates, totalling 208 persons, were granted promotions.

(v) There were litigations concerning promotions, pursuant to which, the official respondents did not finalize the seniority in respect of the incumbents of the post of DSP and because there were several vacancies that have arisen, by fixing appropriate placement in the panel, the official respondents resorted to filling up the post of Adl. SP. Regarding the same