A SETHU RAVONTH Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ALL the three Writ Petitions were filed by the very same petitioner. In the 1st Writ Petition in W.P.No.10943 of 2008, the petitioner sought to set aside the order dated 23.7.2007 passed by the Commissioner of Municipal Administration and for a consequential direction to publish seniority list of Assistant Executive Engineers and Executive Engineers in accordance with the Tamil Nadu Municipal Engineering Service Rules, 1997 granting retrospective benefits of pay, allowances and seniority recognising the seniority of the petitioner over the contesting respondents 3 to 34. That Writ Petition was admitted on 29.04.2008. Pending the Writ Petition, in the application for interim stay, it was recorded that any promotion will be subject to the result of the Writ Petition. The petitioner also filed M.P.No.3 of 2008 seeking for a direction to the respondents 1 and 2 to fill up the posts of Superintending Engineer in Chennai, Coimbatore and Salem Corporations and the posts of City Engineer in Erode,Thirupur and Salem Corporation in the event of the posts being filled up from among the members of Tamil Nadu Municipal Engineering Service strictly in accordance with the seniority of Executive Engineers in the Tamil Nadu Municipal Engineering Service.

(2.) EVEN during the pendency of that Writ Petition, the petitioner filed another Writ Petition being W.P.No.18651 of 2008 challenging an order of the State Government in G.O.Ms.No.242 Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department dated 09.06.2008 and after setting aside the same seeks for appropriate orders. That Writ Petition was admitted on 4.8.2008. Pending the Writ Petition, interim stay was granted for a period of two weeks. Aggrieved by the interim order, the contesting 3rd respondent, namely N.Mahesan filed M.P.No.3 of 2008 seeking to vacate the interim order. All the three applications were disposed of by a common order dated 25.8.2008. This Court made interim stay absolute and dismissed the vacate stay application. Both Writ Petitions were directed to be posted for final disposal.

(3.) I further submit that the 3rd respondent made an appeal to Government that even though his name had not been considered in the panel for the post of Assistant Executive Engineer, his name may be considered in the panel prepared in the year 1998-99 for the post of Assistant Engineer/Junior Engineers where he was fit for promotion as Assistant Executive Engineer based on the ratio of 3:1 as per the Government Orders. This request was examined by the 1st respondent Government and passed an order in G.O.(D) No.242, Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department dated 9.6.2008 placing him as Sl.No.14(a) in the seniority list of the Assistant Executive Engineers issued in the 2nd respondent proceedings No.4212/2006/F1: dated 11.10.2007 below Thiru S.Venkatesh (sl.no.14) above Thiru R.sundaramurthy (sl.no.15) following the ratio of 3:1 respectively in the post of Assistant Executive Engineer.