No relief for 3 TNPSC aspirants who cited ignorance of govt job

Justice S M Subramaniam while dismissing the plea moved by three aspirants, said “If at all the petitioners were of the opinion that they are not government employees, but working in RBI, SBI, Canara Bank, in Corporations or in PSUs, they should have contacted TNPSC officials either over phone or through toll free number and should have clarified, whether they have to provide the service particulars in respect of their employment or not.”

As per the case, in the online application as against the column “Are you a government employee?”, the petitioners mentioned “No” despite being employed in Public Sectors Undertakings. Citing this, TNPSC officials discarded their candidature at the oral test stage for suppressing details of their employment in the column provided. But the petitioners stated that they were not aware that working in PSUs are considered as government jobs.

However, Justice Subramaniam on holding that such a presumption cannot save the disclosure of material facts to be provided in the application, said “If such presumption or self-interpretation are allowed for the purpose of validating the candidature in the process of selection, then it would be difficult for the Public Service Commission to finalise the select list and the same would create an inconsistency in the matter of dealing with the applications in a consistent and uniform manner.”

Also noting that there cannot be any exceptions in respect of adhering to the rules and the conditions stipulated in the recruitment notification as well as the instructions provided in the brochure, Justice Subramanian said “This apart, the TNPSC filed an affidavit stating that out of 14,473 candidates nearly 1,073 candidates similar to the writ petitioners were working viz., in public organizations or public corporations, local bodies etc. All the candidates have answered 'Yes' and seen their way to the selection process.”

“The facts and figures now provided by the TNPSC shows that most of the candidates have understood the meaning of the question with reference to the instructions provided along with the application form. While so, an inference cannot be drawn by this Court only in respect of five or six persons. If such an inference is drawn by this Court, the same will defeat the very equality clause enunciated under the Constitution of India,” Justice Subramaniam added.