JAYARAMAN Vs. THE KERALA STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners are working as First Grade Overseers in the Civil Wing of the Kerala State Electricity Board,the first respondent in the petition.Recruitment of the post of Overseers and Junior Engineers to the Board are governed by the Kerala State Engineering Subordinate Service Rules as they have been adopted by the Board as Regulations framed under the Electricity(Supply)Act.For appoint­ment to the post of Second Grade Overseers the provision is that 75 per cent of the posts should be filled by direct recruit­ment from the open market subject to qualification pres­cribed,and 25 per cent were to be filled up by promoting Tracers already in service who possessed the requisite qualifications.The qualification for promotion was of a lower standard than that for direct recruitment.

(2.) BY a notification dated 26th July 1962 the Board invited applications for 100 posts of 2nd Grade Overseers.Before the selection as per this notification was made,a second notification was issued on 21st June 1963 for 166 posts inclusive of 100 posts already notified.In the second noti­fication it had been specified that those who had applied as per the first notification need not apply again because those applications would also be considered along with the appli­cations received in pursuance of second notification.It is how the petitioners were selected along with others.They were included in the 'advice list 'issued by the Board con­sisting of 176 selected people.Only 146 out of these joined service.According to the petitioners,as they joined as per this advice their seniority has to be reckoned from the date of advice,namely 1st April 1965.

(3.) THE petitioners 'case is that in the seniority list of Second Grade Overseers the petitioners and other direct recruits appointed with them were rightly shown as seniors to respondents 3 to 22.On that basis the petitioners had been promoted as First Grade Overseers.