ST candidates cannot be made to wait until verification of certificates: court

Updated on: Monday, August 23, 2010

Scheduled Tribe candidates seeking government jobs or admission to educational institutions on the community certificates issued by competent authorities cannot be asked to wait until the appointing authority or the institution gets their certificates verified by a State Level Scrutiny Committee, the Madras High Court has ruled.

Dismissing a writ appeal filed by the Tamil Nadu State Public Service Commission in the High Court Bench here, Justices D. Murugesan and M. Duraiswamy said, “The question raised in this appeal causes a general impact on the students/candidates when they apply for selection or appointment to educational courses or government posts.”

The Bench said: “When the community certificate is issued by the competent authority to a person or individual, it should be presumed to be valid till such time it is cancelled by the competent authority in the manner known to law.” Hence, it was unacceptable and unjustifiable to delay the admission or appointment until completion of the verification process.

The present appeal was directed against an order passed by a single judge on November 19, 2009, in favour of a woman candidate who was appointed as Junior Assistant in the Commercial Taxes Department during the general strike of government servants in 2003. Her services were not regularised, despite passing a qualifying examination, because her community certificate was pending before the scrutiny committee.

Holding that candidates possessing community certificates from competent authorities could not be denied their legitimate right to employment and made to wait, the judges said that the employers could, any time, take appropriate action against the individual concerned under the relevant Service Rules if it came to light that he/she had submitted bogus certificates.

ST candidates cannot be made to wait until verification of certificates: court

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