Directs a woman employee to pay Rs. 25,000 as costs to an orphanage
Government servants found to have indulged in grave malpractice during departmental examinations, conducted for promotion to higher posts, should be sacked from service, the Madras High Court Bench here has observed.
Disposing of two writ petitions filed by a woman employee whose annual increment was stopped for lifting key answers from the computer of her superior officer, Justice S. Vaidyanathan said: “The punishment imposed is very meagre. The petitioner should have been sent out of employment.”
The judge said that the petitioner was appointed temporarily as a Junior Assistant at the Sub-Treasury in Theni district in 2003. She cleared Group-IV services examination conducted by Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission in 2009 and got appointed as permanent Junior Assistant in 2010.
In December 2010, she sat for an Account Test for Subordinate Officers to get promoted to the post of Accountant and scored centum. This raised a suspicion leading to multiple enquiries which revealed that her answer script contained all key answers prepared by her superior officer.
Even as the enquiries were under way, she sat for the examination conducted in 2011 and cleared it. Subsequently, on November 29, 2012, the Finance Secretary issued a Government Order withholding her annual increment for one year for the malpractice committed in 2010.
The G.O. was followed by an order issued by the TNPSC on January 29, 2013 debarring her from appearing in any examinations conducted by it for five years with effect from August 24, 2012 when the commission took the decision.
The petitioner had challenged the G.O. and TNPSC’s order on the ground that they amounted to double jeopardy. However, the judge held that the punishment imposed by her department had nothing to do with an independent decision taken by the commission. Mr. Justice Vaidyanathan, nevertheless, ordered that the petitioner should be promoted as Accountant since she had cleared the examination in 2011 and the TNPSC had “wrongly worded” its order stating that she was being debarred only from August 24, 2012.
“The wrong wording of the respondent commission reminds me of a Latin maxim Qui non prohibet quod prohibere potest, assentire videtur meaning he who does not prohibit when he is able to prohibit is in fault. It should have been worded that the debarment starts with effect from 2010,” he said.
Holding that the petitioner could not be allowed to go scot-free due to the mistake committed by the commission, the judge directed her to pay Rs. 25,000 to Muslim Orphanage Committee in Tirunelveli and ordered that she should not be posted in sensitive posts as there was every possibility of her tampering with official records.
Government servants found to have indulged in grave malpractice during departmental examinations, conducted for promotion to higher posts, should be sacked from service, the Madras High Court Bench here has observed.
Disposing of two writ petitions filed by a woman employee whose annual increment was stopped for lifting key answers from the computer of her superior officer, Justice S. Vaidyanathan said: “The punishment imposed is very meagre. The petitioner should have been sent out of employment.”
The judge said that the petitioner was appointed temporarily as a Junior Assistant at the Sub-Treasury in Theni district in 2003. She cleared Group-IV services examination conducted by Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission in 2009 and got appointed as permanent Junior Assistant in 2010.
In December 2010, she sat for an Account Test for Subordinate Officers to get promoted to the post of Accountant and scored centum. This raised a suspicion leading to multiple enquiries which revealed that her answer script contained all key answers prepared by her superior officer.
Even as the enquiries were under way, she sat for the examination conducted in 2011 and cleared it. Subsequently, on November 29, 2012, the Finance Secretary issued a Government Order withholding her annual increment for one year for the malpractice committed in 2010.
The G.O. was followed by an order issued by the TNPSC on January 29, 2013 debarring her from appearing in any examinations conducted by it for five years with effect from August 24, 2012 when the commission took the decision.
The petitioner had challenged the G.O. and TNPSC’s order on the ground that they amounted to double jeopardy. However, the judge held that the punishment imposed by her department had nothing to do with an independent decision taken by the commission. Mr. Justice Vaidyanathan, nevertheless, ordered that the petitioner should be promoted as Accountant since she had cleared the examination in 2011 and the TNPSC had “wrongly worded” its order stating that she was being debarred only from August 24, 2012.
“The wrong wording of the respondent commission reminds me of a Latin maxim Qui non prohibet quod prohibere potest, assentire videtur meaning he who does not prohibit when he is able to prohibit is in fault. It should have been worded that the debarment starts with effect from 2010,” he said.
Holding that the petitioner could not be allowed to go scot-free due to the mistake committed by the commission, the judge directed her to pay Rs. 25,000 to Muslim Orphanage Committee in Tirunelveli and ordered that she should not be posted in sensitive posts as there was every possibility of her tampering with official records.
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