An employee of the Governor’s secretariat got a reprieve after a nearly 15-year-long legal battle with the Madras high court upholding the order of a single judge who set aside the order of the secretary to the Governor transferring him to his parent animal husbandry department.
A division bench of Justices Elipe Dharma Rao and M. Venugopal directed the authorities to give reposting order to S. Nagaraj in the Governor’s secretariat and give all consequential benefits on par with his juniors within two weeks.
Nagaraj was originally on August 1, 1983, appointed a steno typist in the animal husbandry department.
He was transferred to the Governor’s secretariat and appointed an assistant from January 1988 by recruitment on transfer and was was promoted as officiating assistant section officer in 1989.
After the section officer was reverted back to his parent department on his own request, Nagaraj was also discharging duties as personal assistant to the secretary to the Governor from July 1993 to October 1994.
He then gave a representation to promote him to the post of private secretary or section officer.
However, he was suddenly relieved from the post of assistant section officer by an order dated November 25, 1996, and reverted back as steno typist in the parent department.
The bench said once Nagaraj was relieved from the parent department and instructed to join the Governor’s secretariat from January 1988, he cannot be relieved from his duties in the Governor’s secretariat and directed to join his parent department.