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Showing contexts for: tnpsc- in The Tamil Nadu Public Service vs R.Manikandan on 12 August, 2011Matching Fragments
(b) Hence, the candidate approached this Court by filing writ petition seeking for a direction to the TNPSC to publish the result and sponsor his name for appointment for Combined Subordinate Services Examination-I, 2008 (Group-II posts). The writ petition came to be allowed following a Division Bench judgment of this Court made in W.P. (MD) No.4672 of 2009 (Between (Arockiyam vs. The Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission, Rep. by its Secretary and another) dated 19.06.2009 holding that the TNPSC has no jurisdiction to sit over the validity of the community certificate issued by a competent authority. The Division Bench had, in fact, relied upon the earlier judgment of a Division Bench of this Court reported in 2004 WLR 372 (K.K.Senthilkumaran & another vs. The Secretary, Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission). Consequently, the learned Judge directed the TNPSC to declare the result treating the candidate as a scheduled tribe and to pass appropriate orders in accordance with law.
(c) The above direction is questioned by the TNPSC in this writ appeal. When the writ appeal came up for hearing, as already mentioned, the Division Bench directed as follows:-
6.Therefore, while the latter Division Benches have concluded (W.P.No.23189/2008 and W.P. (MD) No.4672/2009) that TNPSC merely has to receive the certificate and accept it as such, the earlier Division Bench, following which all the subsequent orders have been passed, indicates that there is a limited power of examination. This is a very important issue which crops up very frequently before us and therefore this issue has to be clarified, so that the power of the TNPSC when the community certificates are produced before it is decided. The question that is referred is, to what extent the TNPSC have power to examine the Community Certificates regarding their genuineness.
7.The question, however, is whether TNPSC could have actually acted as the appellate authority to the orders passed by the Tahsildar and the Collector. If the TNPSC went on to quash the selection for the reasons extraneous or by using the powers which were never there, could it be said to be action with the jurisdiction of TNPSC? Could it even be called to be a bona fide action on the part of TNPSC? In our opinion, what TNPSC has done in this case is they have assumed to themselves the appellate powers over the Tahsildar's and Collector's orders. Then they went on to examine the correctness of the order of the Collector. In our opinion, this was not possible. The role of TNPSC in examining the certificates would only be limited to see as to whether the certificates were true and genuine or not. The correctness of the information given in the certificates could not be tested by the TNPSC. In this case, the correctness of the community certificate of the appellants was tested by the Collector, Madras, within whose territorial jurisdiction the appellants were ordinarily residing, who had the necessary authority to do so. Once that was done, TNPSC could not assume for itself the powers to sit over the judgment of the Collector. In our opinion, the whole exercise in cancelling the provisional selection was absolutely uncalled for. Therefore, the action taken by TNPSC was itself a non est action. The Court could entertain the writ petition only to the limited extent of quashing the finding by the TNPSC that the petitioners were not Scheduled Caste candidates. By the above order, the Division Bench found that the TNPSC cannot examine the correctness of the order of the District Collector and the role of TNPSC in examining the certificates would only be limited to see as to whether the certificates were true and genuine or not.
4. A similar question came up before a Division Bench of this Court at Madurai Bench, in W.P. (MD) No.4672 of 2009 (Between Arockiyam and The Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission and another). In that case as well, the candidate obtained a Hindu Pallan Scheduled Caste community certificate from the Tahsildar, Sivakasi, dated 05.09.2005. On the strength of the said certificate, he applied to the TNPSC for direct recruitment to the posts included in Group-I service for the year 2006-2007. He was successful in the written examination and he also participated in the interview. Though the list of successful candidates was published, his name did not find a place in the list and on enquiry, he came to know that his result had been withheld for scrutinisation of his community status. The Division Bench, following an order of a learned single Judge (N.Paul Vasanthakumar, J.) reported in 2006 (5) CTC 252 (R.Suguna vs. The Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission, rep. By its Secretary) and the Division Bench judgment of this Court in K.K.Senthilkumaran's case (2004 WLR 372), referred supra, holding that the TNPSC has no jurisdiction to sit over the validity of the community certificate issued by a competent authority, allowed the writ petition and directed the TNPSC to declare the result considering the candidate as Scheduled Caste candidate and thereafter, pass appropriate orders in accordance with law.