Appointment of 18 DEOs quashed

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court quashed a government order issued to fill 18 vacant posts of district educational officer (DEO) and directed the state to re-do the exercise following communal reservation.

“The recruitment has been done in a hap-hazard manner without following the rules of reservation and I feel there is a fundamental mistake in understanding the scheme of reserving certain seats for the post of DEO for the teacher’s category,” wrote Justice RN Manjula. The judge allowed a batch of petitions seeking to quash the order filling 18 vacant posts based on the selection list without any priority for fixation of roster points to teacher category candidates.

The recruitment appears to have been made in a confusing manner by appointing all four teacher category persons against the BC quota, this would naturally deprive those candidates who have secured higher marks in the BC quota and they would have been expelled from the selection list despite securing more marks, wrote the judge.

The judge directed the state to re-do the exercise by rightly issuing two separate selection lists one for the open category and another for the teacher category by following the communal reservation in accordance with the vacancies earmarked as against each community or priority. The process should be completed within four weeks, the judge directed.

In 2018 the state issued a notification for filling 18 vacant posts of DEO, out of the vacant posts, 4 are earmarked for the aided teacher category, 14 candidates ought to have been earmarked for the open category. The petitioners submitted that all 4 candidates in the teacher category have been placed under BC category and appointment of the vacancies has been made without following the rules of reservation.