Government universities can recruit employees solely on the basis of interviews, without giving weightage to marks obtained in qualifying examinations or conducting written tests, if their statutes provide for such a procedure, the Madras High Court Bench here has said.
Justice V.M. Velumani made the observation while dismissing a writ petition filed by Bharathidasan University Backward Class and Most Backward Class Employees Association to restrain the varsity from regularising the services of 16 non-teaching staff recruited on consolidated pay.
The Association alleged that it had become common practice for the university to recruit drivers, junior assistants and lab assistants on consolidated pay and then regularise their services after a few years for extraneous considerations by flouting the rules related to direct recruitment.
Denying the allegations, Special Government Pleader V.R. Shanmuganathan contended that the statute governing the recruitment procedures in Bharathidasan University states that direct recruitment should be made by calling for names from the Employment Exchange concerned.
If the employment exchange could not sponsor the names of eligible candidates, then the university could call for applications by issuing advertisements in newspapers. Such applicants could be recruited only on the basis of interviews since the statute does not prescribe any other mode.
All the 16 staff, whose regularisation of service had been challenged in the present writ petition, were appointed after newspaper publication and hence there was no irregularity in their recruitment as alleged by the petitioner association, the SGP claimed.
Accepting his submissions, the judge pointed out that even the State government had dropped further proceedings in the matter on June 11, 2013 after an in-house enquiry found allegations of the appointments having been made for extraneous considerations to be false.
Ms. Justice Velumani also said that the petitioner association cannot maintain a writ petition on behalf of its members since the latter could not be termed as “poor, disabled or disadvantaged” to approach the court individually.
Justice V.M. Velumani made the observation while dismissing a writ petition filed by Bharathidasan University Backward Class and Most Backward Class Employees Association to restrain the varsity from regularising the services of 16 non-teaching staff recruited on consolidated pay.
The Association alleged that it had become common practice for the university to recruit drivers, junior assistants and lab assistants on consolidated pay and then regularise their services after a few years for extraneous considerations by flouting the rules related to direct recruitment.
Denying the allegations, Special Government Pleader V.R. Shanmuganathan contended that the statute governing the recruitment procedures in Bharathidasan University states that direct recruitment should be made by calling for names from the Employment Exchange concerned.
If the employment exchange could not sponsor the names of eligible candidates, then the university could call for applications by issuing advertisements in newspapers. Such applicants could be recruited only on the basis of interviews since the statute does not prescribe any other mode.
All the 16 staff, whose regularisation of service had been challenged in the present writ petition, were appointed after newspaper publication and hence there was no irregularity in their recruitment as alleged by the petitioner association, the SGP claimed.
Accepting his submissions, the judge pointed out that even the State government had dropped further proceedings in the matter on June 11, 2013 after an in-house enquiry found allegations of the appointments having been made for extraneous considerations to be false.
Ms. Justice Velumani also said that the petitioner association cannot maintain a writ petition on behalf of its members since the latter could not be termed as “poor, disabled or disadvantaged” to approach the court individually.
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