KARNAKAR MANGESH DESAI Vs. STATE OF MYSORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Writ Petition, preferred by an employee of the Mysore State Road Transport Corporation hereinafter called 'the Corporation' is directed against Resolution No. 436 dated 19th October, 1964 passed by the said Corporation. The petitioner has challenged the said resolution, hereinafter referred to as the 'impugned resolution' on the ground that it is the ultra vires of S. 45 of the Road Transport Corporation Act, 1950(Central Act 64 of 1950) hereinafter called the 'Act'. This is the main ground on which the impugned resolution is repugnant to the directions dated 1st August, 1961 given by the State Government to respondent No. 2 under S. 34. In order to appreciate the contentions raised by the parties, it is necessary by briefly narrate the relevant facts which are not in dissolute. Petitioner was an employee in the Bombay State Road Transport Corporation and after formation of the new State as a Government employee on 1st January 1957. On 24th October 1959 the State Government prepared and published what is stated as a Provisional inter State Seniority List as on 1st January 1957 of the Junior Assistants of the Road Transport Department of the Government. In the said list, petitioner's name is found at Serial No.36. In Writ Petition No. 418 of 1960, a similar list relating to another branch of the Road Transport Department was challenged and that list was quashed by this Court by its judgment delivered on 15th March, 1961 on the ground that the Bombay Officials of the Road Transport Department allotted on 1st January 1957 cannot be included in the Inter State Seniority List of the Officials of that Department as on 1st November, 1956.

(2.) In exercise of the powers conferred on the State Government by S. 3 of the Act a Road Transport Corporation called the 'Mysore Transport Corporation' for the whole State of Mysore, except the area comprised in the limits of the City of Bangalore, was constituted was constituted on 1st August 1961 After the Constitution of the Road Transport Corporation, promotions, though temporary, were made on the basis of the Provisional Inter State Seniority List dated 24th October 1959 relating to the Junior Assistants. The last of such promotions was made on the 17th July 1962 and Serial No. 30 in the Provisional Inter State Seniority List was temporarily promoted to the cadre of Senior Assistants which is a State wide post. On 7th May, 1963 the Road Transport Corporation passed Resolution No. 267 which reads thus:

(3.) The petitioner has alleged that the corporation was intending to promote Serial Nos. 44, 55, 56, 61 and 65 in the Provisional Inter State Seniority List though they are persons junior to the petitioner who is Serial Nos. 36, and thus his chances of promotion are impeded by the impugned resolution.