Cancel provisional selection of Civil Judges, HC directs TNPSC
TNPSC has not followed the rule of reservation while drawing up the provisional list, says a Division Bench. As per law, it must draw up a list of candidates, irrespective of their caste group
The Madras High Court has directed Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) to cancel the provisional selection list published by it on February 16, 2024 for the recruitment of 245 Civil Judges and come up with a revised list within two weeks.
A Division Bench of Justices S.M. Subramaniam and K. Rajasekar agreed with advocate Balan Haridas and Senior Counsel G. Sankaran and Dakshayani Reddy that the Tamil Nadu
Public Service Commission had not followed the rule of reservation properly while drawing the provisional list.
Allowing a batch of writ petitions filed by nine aspirants to the post of Civil Judge, the judges pointed out that the TNPSC had issued a notification on June 1, 2023, inviting applications for recruiting 245 Civil Judges, which also includes 92 “carried forward” vacancies.
As per the law, the TNPSC must have drawn up a list of meritorious candidates, irrespective of their caste, under the general category without confining them to their respective caste group such as Most Backward Classes (MBC), Backward Classes, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
However, in the present provisional list, many toppers had been confined to the MBC category thereby depriving the chances of others to be considered under that category.
“Therefore, it is unambiguous that the top scorers were accommodated under the reserved category and candidates who scored lesser marks were accommodated under the general category, which is running counter to the reservation policy,” the judges said and ordered publication of revised list.