Person Joining As An Assistant Engineer In Kerala Water Authority Can Migrate To Either Degree Or Diploma Quota: Supreme Court
The Supreme Court allowed an Appeal by the employees of the Kerala Water Authority by setting aside the Judgment of the Kerala High Court.
The Supreme Court has held that once a person joins as an assistant engineer in Kerala Water Authority, they have the option to migrate to either the degree or diploma quota.
The Court allowed an Appeal by the employees (Appellants) of the Kerala Water Authority by setting aside the Judgment by the Division Bench of the Kerala High Court. The High Court, upholding the decision of the Single Bench, had held that an Assistant Engineer who had opted for the diploma quota at the time of promotion could not later switch to the degree quota for further promotion.
A Bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Manmohan held, “This Court is also of the view that once a person joins as an Assistant Engineer, i.e. the feeder post under a separate service governed by Special Rules, 1960, then that person irrespective of how he/she has been appointed to that post, has the option to migrate to either the degree or diploma quota, provided he/she has obtained a degree or a diploma.”
Senior Advocate Nikhil Goel appeared for the Appellants, while Senior Advocate V. Chitambaresh represented the Respondents.
Brief Facts
The Appeals were filed by six employees of the Kerala Water Authority, who were initially inducted as Draftsmen-Grade I and later promoted as Assistant Engineers. The dispute arose from seniority lists, where the Appellants were placed above the private Respondents. The private Respondents, who had directly joined as Assistant Engineers through the 6% in-service degree-qualified quota, challenged these lists, contending that the Appellants had improperly secured seniority despite being promoted under the 40% diploma quota.
Court’s Reasoning
The Supreme Court explained, “This Court is further of the view that as Special Rules, 1960 deal with a separate service, its Rule 4(b) has no applicability to a stage prior to an officer becoming an Assistant Engineer i.e. to the draftsman/overseer who are holding both degree and diploma qualification and who exercise the option of sitting in 6% (six per cent) competitive exam for promotion to the post of Assistant Engineer. To put it differently, the said Rule 4(b) has no relevance as to how the person was appointed to the feeder post (i.e. the post of Assistant Engineer) in the service governed by the Special Rules, 1960.”
Therefore, the Court held that “the Single Judge has erroneously held that “directly recruited Assistant Engineers from the open market and those promoted through the Departmental Quota are considered under separate watertight categories.”
Consequently, the Court held, “Accordingly, the present appeals are allowed and consequently, the impugned judgments passed by the learned Single Judge and the Division Bench are set aside. Pending applications, if any, also stand disposed of.”
Accordingly, the Supreme Court allowed the Appeal.
Cause Title: Sajithabai & Ors. v. The Kerala Water Authority And Ors. (Neutral Citation: 2025 INSC 354)
Appearance:
Appellants: Senior Advocate Nikhil Goel; AOR P.S. Sudheer; Advocates Arvinda Babu, Siddhi Gupta, Anne Mathew, Bharat Sood, Jai Govind M J and Aditya Roy
Respondents: Senior Advocate Jayanth Muth Raj; AOR Himinder Lal and Nishe Rajen Shonker; Advocates Anu K Joy, Alim Anvar and Santhosh K