ANIL VISHWASH Vs. HARYANA STATE ELECTRICITY BOARD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition under Art. 226 of the Constitution represents the third round of litigation between the parties. There is a dispute regarding inter se seniority. A few facts may be noticed.

(2.) There are two Thermal Units in the State of Haryana, one at Faridabad and the other at Panipat. The unit at Faridabad started earlier than the one at Panipat. The staff working in these two units was borne on separate independent cadres with no inter se seniority. The petitioners herein were appointed at the Panipat unit while respondent Nos. 4 and 30 were appointed on different posts at the Faridabad unit. However, it is the admitted position that the initial date of appointment on the work-charge establishment in the case of the petitioners was later than the date of appointment of the respondents. It appears that in April 1983 the Haryana State Electricity Board which controls both the units decided to merge the cadre of the two units. Actual merger took place w.e.f. June 30, 1983. A joint tentative seniority list which appears to have been prepared in anticipation of the merger of the two cadres was issued vide letter dated May 24, 1983. The petitioners have not produced a copy of the seniority list issued with this letter. However, a copy of the tentative joint seniority list issued vide letter dated July 21, 1983 has been produced as Annexure P.11.

(3.) A perusal of this document shows that the petitioners had joined service in the year 1979. As against this, the respondents whose names appear from Serial No. 133 onwards, appear to have joined the work-charge establishment much earlier than the petitioners. So far as Kashmira Singh, respondent No. 3 is concerned, even though his date of appointment is shown as Nov. 19, 1981, it appears that he had joined service at Faridabad unit much earlier than that and had been transferred to Panipat unit in Feb., 1980. His services were regularised vide order No. 376 dated Nov. 16, 1981 and, therefore, this date has been mentioned in the list.