Section 40 in Tamil Nadu Government Servants (Conditions of Service) Act, 2016
40. Fixation of seniority.
(1)The seniority of a person in a service, class, category or grade shall, unless he has been reduced to a lower rank as a punishment, be determined in the order of his placement in the list prepared by the recruitment agency or appointing authority, as the case may be, in accordance with the rule of reservation and the order of rotation specified in Schedule-V, where it applies. The date of commencement of his probation shall be the date on which he joins duty irrespective of his seniority.(2)The seniority of a person in a service, class, category or grade shall, where the normal method of recruitment to that service, class, category or grade is by more than one method of recruitment, unless the individual has been reduced to a lower rank as a punishment, be determined with reference to the date on which he is appointed to the services, class, category or grade:Provided that where the junior appointed by a particular method of recruitment happens to be appointed to a service, class, category or grade, earlier than the senior appointed by the same method of recruitment, the senior shall be deemed to have been appointed to the service, class, category or grade on the same day on which the junior was so appointed:Provided further that the benefit of the above proviso shall be available to the senior only for the purpose of fixing inter-se-seniority:Provided also that where persons appointed by more than one method of recruitment are appointed or deemed to have been appointed to the service, class, category or grade on the same day, their inter-se-seniority shall be decided with reference to their age.(3)The transfer of a person from one class or category of a service to another class or category carrying the same scale of pay or pay band shall not be treated as first appointment to the latter for purpose of seniority and the seniority of a person so transferred shall be determined with reference to the rank in the class or category from which he was transferred; where any difficulty or doubt arises in applying this provision, seniority shall be determined by the appointing authority.(4)Where a member of any service, class, category or grade is reduced to a lower service, class, category or grade he shall be placed at the top of the latter unless the authority ordering such reduction directs that he shall take rank in such lower service, class, category or grade, next below any specified member thereof.(5)The seniority of any person in a service or post of the merged territory of Pudukkottai, who is absolutely in a service or post under the Government of Tamil Nadu shall be determined as follows:-(i)If he is absorbed in a post similar to that which he was formerly holding in the service of the merged territory of Pudukkottai, his seniority shall be determined by the date from which he was holding the former post continuously.(ii)If he is absorbed in a post of a higher cadre carrying a higher scale of pay than that which he was formerly holding in the service of the merged territory of Pudukottai his seniority shall be determined by the date on which he joined the post under the Government of Tamil Nadu.(iii)If he is absorbed in a post other than those specified in clauses (i) and (ii), which does not improve his cadre and scale of pay in the service of the merged territory of Pudukottai, his seniority shall be determined on the basis of merit.(6)Application for the revision of seniority of a person in a service, class, category or grade shall be submitted to the appointing authority within a period of three years from the date of appointment to such service, class, category or grade or within a period of three years from the date of order fixing the seniority, as the case may be. Any application received after the said period of three years shall be summarily rejected. This shall not, however, be applicable to cases of rectifying orders, resulting from mistake of facts.
