In Brief
The Supreme Court resolved a dispute over seniority of Assistant Engineers at Tamil Nadu Electricity Board. Direct recruits appointed in December 2000 and March 2001 underwent two years of training initially, while internal selectees were promoted in May 2002. The Board later reduced training to three months. The question was whether direct recruits' seniority should be counted from their joining date (including training) or only from when their probation commenced. The Court held that under the Service Regulations, "duty" includes the training period and "appointment" occurs upon joining for training. Therefore, seniority must be reckoned from the initial joining date in 2000/2001, not from 2002. Administrative changes to training duration cannot alter vested seniority rights.
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