An employee of Karnataka Power Transmission Corporation Ltd (KPTCL), who is transferred from one circle to another on his/her request, cannot claim seniority over the transferred circle’s cadre with regard to promotion in terms of the regulations governing the transfer, said the High Court of Karnataka.
As per the regulation, the court said “an employee’s seniority in the transferred circle for the purpose of promotion can be counted only with reference to his/her entry in the transferred circle, and not on the basis of his date of birth in the previous circle”, when the transfer is based on the employee’s request.
A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice N.V. Anjaria and Justice K.V. Aravind, passed the order while allowing an appeal filed by KPTCL, which had questioned the verdict of a single judge who had set aside KPTCL’s 2022 circular issued on transfer policy based on the regulations.
The Bench made it clear that as per the Karnataka Electricity Board Recruitment and Promotion (Amendment and Regulations) 2020, the employees who are transferred upon their own request/voluntarily to another circle, cannot claim seniority over employees in the transferred circle’s cadre for the purpose of promotion.
Noticing that KPTCL’s regulation stipulates that the employee will have to give an undertaking on giving up the seniority in the circle when the transfer is being sought voluntarily, the Bench also said that employees cannot claim seniority in promotion in the transferred circle having signed the undertaking to forego the seniority in promotion on being transferred to circular of their choice.
Also, the Bench noted from the regulations that the condition of foregoing seniority in the transferred circle does not apply when the KPTCL itself transfers an employee from one circle to another in its interest.
Published - September 17, 2024 07:00 am IST
