K.B.GOPAKUMAR Vs. ASSISTANT DEVASWOM COMMISSIONER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This writ petition is filed seeking the following reliefs:

(2.) Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing Counsel appearing for the Travancore Devaswom Board.

(3.) The petitioner submits that he is a Sambandi under the Travancore Devaswom Board having entered service in the year 1992. It is submitted that the petitioner had been transferred and posted to the T.V. Puram Devaswom on 27.06.2018. Petitioner had made a request in the general transfer for a posting to the Krishnan Kovil Devaswom as his first choice. It is submitted that the 4 th respondent, who had been posted as Sambandi in the T.V. Puram Devaswom on 04.05.2020, had also sought a transfer to the Krishnan Kovil Devaswom in the Vaikom Group as his third choice. It is submitted that the request of the petitioner for a transfer to Krishnan Kovil was not considered but the 4th respondent was posted to the Krishnan Kovil Devaswom. The petitioner had taken up the matter in appeal by Ext.P4 order dated 28.07.2020. The appeal preferred by the petitioner was rejected on the ground that the 4th respondent had longer Station Seniority in T.V. Puram Devaswom than the petitioner. It was stated in Ext.P4 that the 4th respondent had been posted in the T.V. Puram Devaswom in 2016 and that he had been continuing in the same post and there was only a duty arrangement made to the Edayazham Devaswom in the meanwhile. It is therefore contended in Ext.P4 that the 4th respondent who has the longer Service Seniority and Station Seniority at T.V. Puram than the petitioner is eligible for the posting to Krishnan Kovil which was his third choice.