D.RAVI Vs. GOVERNMENT OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard.

(2.) The vexed issue arising from the accelerated promotions granted to members of the police force for their participation in the operation culminating in the hunting and killing of the forest brigand Veerappan has repeatedly engaged the attention of this Court through multiple litigations. In the present case, the controversy turns on whether the petitioners are entitled only to one promotion from their substantive post, or whether such accelerated promotion can also be reckoned from a temporary post so as to confer upon them the unintended advantage of securing a further promotion to the next higher post.

(3.) In the present batch, the ten writ petitioners have instituted two distinct sets of writ petitions. In the first set, the common prayer was to quash G.O.(Ms.) No. 276, Home (Pol.VIII) Department, dtd. 1/4/2017, issued by the first respondent. Notwithstanding that all ten writ petitions in the first set substantially sought the same relief, the petitioners thereafter instituted a second set of writ petitions, wherein they sought quash of consequential reversion to the lower post.