BENGALURU: Setting aside the order of a single judge permitting the claim to seniority for promotion among employees of Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation (KPTCL), a division bench of the Karnataka High Court said an employee who is transferred to another circle on his own request, cannot be permitted to march over seniority positions in the transferred circle cadre.
The bench said the employee was transferred to a different circle from the parent circle with his consent, on the undertaking of giving up seniority in the circle where he is transferred.
A division bench of Chief Justice NV Anjaria and Justice KV Aravind passed the order while allowing the appeal filed by KPTCL, challenging the order dated March 21, 2023, passed by a single judge on the petition filed by mechanic Naveen Kumar S (Grade-II), Bescom, and six others.
Noting that the single judge overlooked the material aspect and misdirected himself both in law and on facts, the division bench said the petitioners who got a transfer on request to another circle, in light of the regulations and cadre position, cannot claim seniority over the employees in the transferred circle for the purpose of promotion. Seniority for the purpose of promotion cannot be mixed up in two circle cadres. As per their own undertaking, they had given up such a claim, said the division bench, citing the Karnataka Electricity Board Employees Seniority Regulations.
The division bench stated that the Supreme Court observed that “an employee who is transferred to another collectorate does not lose his/her past service for the purpose of considering his/her eligibility.
But, if such transfer is voluntary or unilateral on condition that he/she will be placed at the bottom of the seniority list in the transferee department, the said condition would bind him/her and he/she cannot claim seniority over the employees in the transferee department”. Therefore, a government servant who is transferred on a personal request will have to forego seniority, the bench said.