Order on demoting Tamil Pandit for not clearing Class 12 upheld

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court had upheld a decision of the state Directorate of School Education withdrawing its order promoting a junior assistant to the post of Tamil Pandit/teacher on the grounds that the man had not passed Mathematics in Class 12 before obtaining the B.Lit. degree.

A division bench of Justice R Subramanian and Justice Sathi Kumar Sukamara Kurup passed the orders on allowing an appeal filed by the Directorate of School Education. The state challenged the order of a single judge striking down the withdrawal of promotion granted to a junior assistant named S Bhaskar to the post of Tamil Pandit in the government.

G Nanmaran, special government pleader submitted that the respondent had joined as a junior assistant in 2004 and the department offered for promotion of clerical staff as teachers provided they had the prescribed qualification and a two per cent reservation was made for such promotions.

“The department realised that the promotion of the respondent was not in consonance with the relevant rules, since GO dated August 18, 2009, which governs the issue specifically provides that only persons who had obtained degrees in the Open University system after having passed in the Higher Secondary Examination would be considered to be holding a valid graduation degree to enable them to seek employment in the state’s services,” the special government pleader argued.

It may be noted that Bhaskar passed his Class 10 in 1980. When he appeared for his Class 12 examination conducted in April 1982, he failed in Mathematics. However, he managed to complete B.Lit., from Alagappa University in 2007 and also completed MA Tamil in 2011. It is noted that he had cleared the Class 12 mathematics subject again in a supplementary examination conducted in September 2010.

Recording the submissions, the judge set aside the single judge’s order and upheld the order of the Directorate of the School Education department.