Considering that there was a delay in fixing the seniority of a government employee, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court directed the State to confer notional promotion and grant monetary benefits to the petitioner.
The court was hearing the petition filed by T. Mathiarasan. He had joined service as a Junior Assistant in the Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department in 1994. After clearing a department test in 1998, he was promoted as an Assistant.
In 2000, he applied for mutual transfer. Subsequently, he was transferred from Pudukkottai to Thanjavur in the place of one Devadass. Devadass was senior to Mathiarasan in service. The grievance of the petitioner was that he was left out of the seniority list. He was not allowed to undergo Rural Welfare Officer Grade I training immediately after joining the Thanjavur unit.
The petitioner’s seniority was fixed in 2008. He was then sent for training. He completed the training in 2009. Thereafter, his name was included in the panel for promotion to the post of Deputy Block Development Officer with effect from 2010.
Justice S. Srimathy observed that there was a delay of eight years in fixing the seniority. If seniority had been fixed in 2000 itself, the petitioner would have completed the training as Rural Welfare Officer in 2001. The petitioner is entitled to be considered for the promotion to the post of Deputy Block Development Officer from 2001.
