The judgment was passed by a division bench that was led by its then Chief Justice AP Sahi in a case concerning hierarchy of sub-inspectors in the Tamil Nadu police department
A bench of Justices R Subramanian and K Govindarajan Thilakavadi recalled the December 5, 2019 judgment “in its entirety” after the High Court registry filed a report confirming that B Vivekanandan, who was a respondent in the matter, had not been served with the notice and was therefore, not heard before the verdict was delivered.
“Once it is conceded that notice was not served on one of the respondents, the order which reverses the order of the writ court has to be necessarily recalled,” the High Court said while allowing the review petition filed by Vivekanandan.
The original dispute was about the 2007 seniority list of sub-inspectors of the technical department in the State police.
One of them, one PK Murugan, filed a writ petition before the High Court in 2013 questioning the seniority list claiming that the list had been devised without assessing the candidates’ technical expertise.
In 2018, a single-judge presided over by Justice V Parthiban, allowed Murugan’s writ petition and directed the police department to rework the said list.
However, a group of police personnel, who were adversely affected by Justice Prathiban’s order, filed an appeal in 2019.
A division bench of the then Chief Justice AP Sahi and Justice Subramonium Prasad, who is now a Delhi High Court judge, heard the appeal and set aside the single-judge’s order.
Source: Barandbench
