CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has permitted the Tamil Nadu government to proceed with filling the remaining posts of Health Inspectors, except for 47 disputed vacancies, in connection with a case relating to appointments.
In Tamil Nadu, a recruitment process was conducted to fill around 1,400 health inspector posts. However, the applications of 47 candidates, who had completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Health Inspector course from institutions affiliated with Gandhigram Institute and Madurai Kamaraj University, were rejected.
Challenging this, the affected candidates approached the High Court. While hearing the matter, a single judge of the High Court in January had directed that the names of the eligible petitioners be included in the provisional selection list, and that the recruitment process should be carried out in accordance with the reservation policy, provided the candidates satisfied other eligibility criteria.
Aggrieved by this order, the Health Department and the Medical Services Recruitment Board filed appeals before the Division Bench, submitting that 47 health inspector posts had already been set aside for the petitioners involved in the educational qualification dispute, and sought permission to proceed with filling the remaining vacancies.
Accepting the submission, a Division Bench comprising Justice R Suresh Kumar and Justice N Senthilkumar permitted the State to fill the remaining posts by following the 69% reservation policy, while keeping 47 posts vacant.
It further directed that the 47 reserved vacancies should be filled only based on the outcome of the pending appeals and posted the appeals for final hearing at a later date.