Supreme Court lets 63 Tamil Nadu officers to continue in service

The Supreme Court has allowed 63 group 1 officers in Tamil Nadu, appointed by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission nearly a decade ago, to continue in service in the interest of administration as well as in the interest of the candidates, who have already passed the examination held by TNPSC.

A Bench of Justices Anil R. Dave and Dipak Misra on Thursday allowed a review petition filed by the TNPSC against a 2014 verdict quashing their appointments on the ground that they had committed irregularities in the examination.

In its order the bench said, “In exercise of powers under Article 142 of the Constitution (to do substantial justice) we direct that the candidates who have been working in different services of Tamil Nadu state shall be continued in service, notwithstanding any order passed by the Division Bench of Madras high court and confirmed by this court.“

The bench said, “We have adopted this course mainly for the reason that the selected candidates did not get sufficient opportunity to represent their case before the high court, and upon hearing the concerned counsel and upon perusal of the record and report received from TNPSC as well as Union Public Service Commission, we also find that the mistakes, if any, committed by the candidates who have now been selected, were very often ignored and therefore, it would not be just and proper to take such a harsh view in the matter so as to render several reasonably good officers working for several years jobless.”

It was also submitted that grave injustice would be caused to those officers working for several years as their services will be terminated and they will not get any chance to get any employment elsewhere as they have already crossed the age limit for applying for any other government post by virtue of afflux of time and that too for no fault on their part.

The bench also took into consideration the fact that the original petitioners who had filed the petition are not likely to have any benefit because in any case they had failed at the examination and therefore, there is no question of giving any appointment to them at this stage. For the afore-stated reasons, the review applications are allowed only to the above extent by exercising our power under Article 142 of the Constitution, the Bench said.