Madras high court recalls order as key respondent wasn't notified

CHENNAI: More than three years after a bench headed by the then chief justice A P Sahi delivered a police seniority-related judgment without notice to a key respondent, the Madras high court recalled the order on Tuesday.
As soon as the registry of the high court informed a division bench of Justice R Subramanian and Justice G Thilakavadi that notice had not been served on respondents, the bench recalled the order.
"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 bench said while allowing a review petition moved by Vivekanandan.
The issue pertains to a batch of pleas for fixing the seniority of Sub Inspectors (Technical) in the police department.
"Since it is a matter concerning seniority of a bunch of persons, who were appointed as a Sub-Inspector (Technical) in the police force in the same recruitment, recalling the order in respect of one person alone would not be a correct resolution," the bench said and recalled he entire judgment.
The issue pertains to pleas moved by PK Murugan in 2013 questioning their 2007 seniority list. According to the petitioner the seniority of the Sub Inspectors could not be assessed by testing only their general knowledge and not their technical expertise.
A single judge of the court concurred with the submission and allowed the writ petition with a direction to the police department to recast the seniority list.
Subsequently, the then first bench allowed an appeal against the order and set aside the order of the single judge.