Madras High Court
S.Prasanth vs The Chairman on 9 July, 2020
Author: R.Suresh Kumar
Bench: R.Suresh Kumar
W.P.(MD) No.6715 of 2020
BEFORE THE MADURAI BENCH OF MADRAS HIGH COURT
DATED: 09.07.2020
CORAM
THE HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE R.SURESH KUMAR
W.P.(MD)No.6715 of 2020
and
W.M.P.(MD) No.6083 of 2020
(Through Video conferencing)
S.Prasanth ...Petitioner
-Vs-
1.The Chairman,
Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services
Recruiment Board,
No.807, P.D.V.Sengalvaraya Naicker
Maligai,
Anna Salai, Chennai – 2.
2.The Director General of Police,
Kamarajar Salai,
Kailasapuram, Mylapore,
Chennai – 4.
3.The District Superintendent of Police,
District Superintendent of Police Office,
Korampallam,
Thoothukudi District.
4.The Chairman/Member,
Sub-Committee of Tamil Nadu Uniformed
Services Recruitment,
Thoothukudi Board,
District Superintendent of Police Department Office,
Thoothukudi. ...Respondents
http://www.judis.nic.in
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W.P.(MD) No.6715 of 2020
Prayer: Writ Petition - filed under Article 226 of Constitution of India, to
issue a writ of Mandamus, directing the respondents to reconsider the
petitioner's Secondary School Leaving Certificate (Certified Copy of
Marks) and certified extract of Date of Birth certificate given by
Department of Government Education, Chennai and appoint him in any
post of Grade-II Police constable at Armed Reserve Police Force, Fire
man in Fire Department and Jail warder in Jail Department in the very
same recruitment by considering his representation dated 23.03.2020.
For Petitioner : Ms.M.Shobana
For Respondents : Mr.K.Chellapandian, AAG assisted by
Mr.K.Mu.Muthu, AGP
ORDER
The prayer in this writ petition is for a writ of Mandamus, directing the respondents to reconsider the petitioner's Secondary School Leaving Certificate (Certified Copy of Marks) and certified extract of Date of Birth certificate given by Department of Government Education, Chennai and appoint him in any post of Grade-II Police constable at Armed Reserve Police Force, Fire man in Fire Department and Jail warder in Jail Department in the very same recruitment by considering his representation dated 23.03.2020.
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2.The short facts, leading to filing of this writ petition, are as follows:
The petitioner has made an application to the respondents i.e., the 1st respondent Recruitment Board for selection of Police Constable Grade II of the year 2019. At the time of submission of application, photo copies of the certificates of educational qualifications and other aspects of the candidature have been annexed as required and once a selection process is commenced, the candidates as per merits will be called for certificate verification of various certificates, which includes the educational qualifications and accordingly, on 21.11.2019, the 3rd respondent called the petitioner for certificate verification. However, the petitioner on that day could not produce the 10th standard/SSLC mark statement as he lost the certificate during travel and therefore, in order to get the certified copy of such SSLC certificate, which was lost, the petitioner subsequently applied to the authorities on the recommendation of the Tahsildar concerned and also on the basis of the lost document report given by the police, where the complaint has been given by the petitioner and based on the said application, the petitioner is yet to receive the duplicate mark sheet from the concerned authorities. In the meanwhile, since the petitioner has not been selected, he has asked for the reason for non selection from the respondents, especially http://www.judis.nic.in 3/13 W.P.(MD) No.6715 of 2020 the 3rd respondent under RTI Act, pursuant to which, in response to the same, the 3rd respondent vide proceedings dated 16.03.2020, informed the petitioner that the petitioner's candidature was not considered as during the certificate verification, the petitioner was not able to produce the original documents including the original mark statement of SSLC/10th standard. Only at this juncture, the present writ petition has been filed with the aforesaid prayer.
3.Heard the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, who would submit that, the petitioner has missed the 10th standard original mark statement during travel and therefore, subsequently, he made a complaint to the concerned police station, who after tracing the same, has given a certificate i.e. lost document report on 19.10.2019. Based on which, he was able to get a certificate from the Tahsildar concerned on 20.01.2020 and pursuant to these developments, the petitioner, on 20.02.2020 has made a request to the educational authorities through the Headmaster concerned, where the petitioner studied 10th standard to get a duplicate mark statement. However, the said duplicate mark sheet is yet to be given to the petitioner. Therefore, at the time of certificate verification, the petitioner could not produce the original. However, the petitioner is having photocopy of the mark statement as well as the certified mark statement of SSLC and on the http://www.judis.nic.in 4/13 W.P.(MD) No.6715 of 2020 strength of these photocopies, the respondents should have considered the candidature of the petitioner for selection to the post of Police Constable Grade II. But, since such action has not been taken, the petitioner has approached this Court, he contended.
4.However, on the other hand, the learned Additional Advocate General appearing for the respondents relying upon the written instructions given by the 1st respondent has submitted that, the petitioner has made application pursuant to the notification for the recruitment of Police Constable Grade II and in the application itself i.e. in the instructions, it is clearly stated that all the original certificates should be brought to the authorities at the time of verification and if no original certificates are produced during the certificate verification, the candidature would be summarily rejected.
5.In this context, it is the further case of the respondents that on 29.11.2019, the 3rd respondent called the petitioner for certificate verification. Admittedly, the petitioner could not produce various original certificates including the SSLC mark sheet, which is crucial, because, that is the basic educational qualification. Whatever be the reason on the part of the petitioner http://www.judis.nic.in 5/13 W.P.(MD) No.6715 of 2020 for non production of the 10th/SSLC original mark statement, as per the instructions given in the brochure to the candidates to make application for this recruitment, those candidates, who are not able to produce the original certificates including the educational qualification certificate at the time of certificate verification, those candidature would be rejected and accordingly, the petitioner's candidature also was rejected.
6.In this context, it is pointed out by the learned Additional Advocate General that, though it was claimed by the petitioner that the certificate was lost sometime prior to October 2019 as the lost document report was filed by the police on 19.10.2019 and a certificate to that effect was given by the police on 20.11.2019, the petitioner could have made an effort to get a duplicate certificate by making an appropriate application to the appropriate authority in time. Instead, the petitioner admittedly has made an application only on 20.02.2020 to the School Headmaster to get the duplicate certificate of SSLC mark sheet, that shows the lackadaisical attitude on the part of the petitioner that he has not even applied to the authority concerned to get the duplicate certificate in time. Therefore, admittedly, the petitioner did not hold or produce the original SSLC certificate at the time of verification. Therefore, as per the brochure issued and as per the condition imposed by the http://www.judis.nic.in 6/13 W.P.(MD) No.6715 of 2020 recruiting agency i.e. the 1st respondent, since the candidature of the petitioner was liable to be rejected, it was rejected.
7.The learned Additional Advocate General has also pointed out the written instructions given in this regard by the 1st respondent, where the learned Additional Advocate General relied on the paragraphs 7 and 10, which are extracted herein:
“7.It is further submitted that the petitioner submitted a written representation to TNUSRB on 28.11.2019 stating that he could not produce the original certificates during the certificate verification before the Sub-Committee, Thoothukudi on 21.11.2019 and was prepared to submit the original certificates then before the Board for consideration of his candidature. However the petitioner was informed that according to Para 17 of the information brochure “the original certificates for which copies were uploaded in the online application would only be verified during certificate verification.” Under these circumstances stated above it is not fair on the part of the Board to consider his request as he had failed to submit the original certificates on the day of certificate verification i.e. on 21.11.2019.
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8. ........
9. ........
10.It is further submitted that the entire selection process of the Common Recruitment of Gr.II PC 2019 had been completed and the selected candidates are undergoing training in the respective departments. Hence the prayer of the petitioner who had failed to submit the original certificates during the time of certificate verification to direct the respondents to appoint him for any post of Grade II Police Constable, Firemen and Jail Warder is not maintainable.”
8.By relying on these instructions, the learned Additional Advocate General would also submit that, if at all the petitioner in future will get the duplicate certificate pursuant to his application made in February 2020 and produce the same, that would be taken into account only in respect of future recruitment, since as far as the present recruitment is concerned, the entire recruitment process was over and the recruited candidates have been put into rigorous training which is going on.
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9.I have heard the submissions made by the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner as well as the learned Additional Advocate General assisted by the learned Additional Government Pleader appearing for the respondent.
10.Admittedly, on the date of verification of certificate i.e., 29.11.2019, the petitioner was not able produce the original SSLC certificate as before which he lost the said certificate and he was able to get a lost document report from the police concerned. However, the petitioner seems to have not immediately applied to the authorities concerned to get duplicate certificate and admittedly, he has made application only on 20.02.2020.
11.In the meanwhile, the certificate verification process was over and since the certificate was not produced, the recruiting agency was not in a position to verify the claim of the petitioner that the petitioner is having the educational qualification of SSLC. Therefore, his candidature was rightly rejected.
12.Though the law has been settled in this regard that, at the time of verification, if candidate is not able to produce the original certificate, subsequently was able to produce the original certificate for any plausible or genuine reason, the said http://www.judis.nic.in 9/13 W.P.(MD) No.6715 of 2020 candidature need not be rejected and such later production can be accepted. However, in this case, even today, the petitioner is not in a position to file either the original certificate or the duplicate certificate as the petitioner admittedly has lost the original certificate and yet to receive the duplicate certificate.
13.Therefore, in anticipation of the production of the duplicate certificate, we cannot ask the respondents to keep one post vacant or to wait till the petitioner takes time to get the duplicate certificate and produce the same. Moreover, as has been rightly pointed out by the learned Additional Advocate General through the written instructions in this regard as quoted above, the recruitment process was already over and the recruited constables are undergoing training. Therefore, as on date, there is no vacancy for the present recruitment.
14.Accordingly, the learned Additional Advocate General fairly submitted that once the petitioner is able to get the duplicate certificate, certainly in future recruitment, such duplicate certificate on the educational qualification of the petitioner would be accepted by the respondents and in that case, the candidature of the petitioner if he is otherwise qualified will be considered for future vacancy. The said submission made by the learned http://www.judis.nic.in 10/13 W.P.(MD) No.6715 of 2020 Additional Advocate General is hereby recorded and in view of the aforesaid facts and circumstances, this Court is not in a position to give any direction as has been sought for by the petitioner in this writ petition to accept the candidature of the petitioner in the Recruitment of Police Constables Grade II as that recruitment was over and the training is going on. However, if the petitioner is able to get the duplicate certificate of SSLC/10th standard mark sheet in future and produce the same at the time of future recruitment, certainly, the same shall be taken into account by the respondents.
15.With this observation, this writ petition is dismissed. No costs. Consequently, connected miscellaneous petition is closed.
09.07.2020 Index : Yes/No Internet : Yes/No Arul Note: In view of the present lock down owing to COVID-19 pandemic, a web copy of the order may be utilized for official purposes, but, ensuring that the copy of the order that is presented is the correct copy, shall be the responsibility of the advocate/litigant concerned.
http://www.judis.nic.in 11/13 W.P.(MD) No.6715 of 2020 To
1.The Chairman, Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruiment Board, No.807, P.D.V.Sengalvaraya Naicker Maligai, Anna Salai, Chennai – 2.
2.The Director General of Police, Kamarajar Salai, Kailasapuram, Mylapore, Chennai – 4.
3.The District Superintendent of Police, District Superintendent of Police Office, Korampallam, Thoothukudi District.
4.The Chairman/Member, Sub-Committee of Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment, Thoothukudi Board, District Superintendent of Police Department Office, Thoothukudi.
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Arul Order made in W.P.(MD)No.6715 of 2020 09.07.2020 http://www.judis.nic.in 13/13