Section 3 in Tamil Nadu Town Panchayats (Establishment) Rules, 1988
3. Approved Candidates. - (a) All first appointments to a service or class or category, whether by direct recruitment or by recruitment by transfer or by promotion shall be made by the appointing authority from a list of "approved" candidates". Such list shall be prepared in the prescribed manner by the appointing authority or any other authority empowered in the special rules in that behalf. Where the candidates in such list are arranged in their order of preference, appointments to the service shall be made in such order:
Provided that the list of approved candidates for appointment by promotion and by recruitment by transfer to all the categories of posts in the service shall be prepared annually against the estimated number of vacancies expected to arise during the course of a year. The estimate of vacancies shall be prepared taking into account the total number of permanent posts in a-category, the number of temporary posts in existence; the anticipated sanction of new posts in the next year; the recruitment of leave reserves and anticipated vacancies due to retirement and promotion, etc., in the course of the year and the number of candidates already in position in that category. The list of approved candidates shall be in force for a period of one year only and shall lapse at the end of the year. The candidates whose names were included in the previous list, but were not appointed shall be considered if eligible, for inclusion in the list for the next year along with their seniors, if any, whose names were not included in the previous list either because they were found not suitable or because they were not qualified when the previous list was drawn up. For preparing the lists, it shall be sufficient to consider the claims of all the candidates, senior to the junior most candidate proposed for inclusion in the list.Explanation. - (a) The period of one year validity for the list of approved candidates shall be reckoned from the date of approval of the panel by the competent authority.(b)Where a candidate's name has been included in the list of approved candidates for more than one class or category the appointing authority who proposes to appoint such a candidate first shall require him to elect the class or category to which he wishes to be appointed. On such election, the candidate's name shall be removed from the list or lists of approved candidates for the class or category to which he does not wish to be appointed.
