Community Certificates issued by Tahsildars are valid so long as not cancelled.

1. The prayer in the Writ Petition is to quash the order of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission dated 18.4.1996 requesting the petitioner produce the community certificate from the R.D.O., Mettur on or before 20.5.1996 in support of her claim that she belongs to Hindu Konda Reddy Community for her appointment as Typist in the Group IV Services Examination, which the petitioner has passed.

2. Brief facts necessary for the disposal of the case:

The petitioner belongs to Konda Reddy Community, which is a Scheduled Tribe Community. According to the petitioner, on 14.9.1988, the petitioner obtained a community certificate from the Tahsildar, Mettur and the certificate was issued after due enquiry and the petitioner's relatives also obtained similar community certificate from the Tahsildar, Mettur. The petitioner applied for Group IV Services, for which the examination was conducted by TNPSC in the year 1994. The Registration Number of the petitioner is 249667. The petitioner was allowed to write the examination and according to the petitioner, she was declared pass and only due to want of community certificate issued by the Revenue Divisional Officer, the petitioner has not been given appointment.

3. The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that certificates sued by the Tahsildar upto 11.11.1989 are valid and from 11.11.1989 awards only the Revenue Divisional Officers are empowered to issue community certificate in respect of Scheduled Tribe Community. The learned counsel for the petitioner further argues that so long as the community certificate issued by a competent authority, is not cancelled or withdrawn, the TNPSC and other authorities are bound to act upon the said certificates and the TNPSC has no jurisdiction to compel the petitioner to produce community certificate issued by the Revenue Divisional Officer.

4. The learned counsel for the petitioner in support of his contention cited the Judgment rendered in R. Kandasamy v. Chief Engineer, Madras Port Trust, 1997 (3) CTC 36 : 1997 (7) SCC 505, wherein the Hon'ble supreme Court held that only in G.O. Ms. No. 2137 dated 11.11.1989, the Government ordered that the community certificate for ST candidate shall be issued by the Revenue Divisional Officers and construing the said G.O., the Hon'ble Supreme Court held that the certificates issued till the said date by a competent authority viz., the Tahsildars are valid and so long the said community certificates are not cancelled everybody is bound to accept the said certificates as valid for all purposes.

5. The learned counsel also pointed out that in the judgment of this Court rendered in the case in K.K. Senthilkumaran & Another v. The Secretary, Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission, 2004 WLR 372, in which the Division Bench of this Court held that the action taken by the TNPSC in demanding the candidate to produce community certificate from the Revenue Divisional Officer is non est as the TNPSC has no jurisdiction to sit over the validity of the community certificate issued by a competent authority.

6. In another Judgment rendered in the case in K. Sivaprakasam v. The Revenue Divisional Officer, Thiruvannamalai, Thiruvannamalai District and Another, 2001 (1) LW 720, another Division Bench of this Court held the validity of the Community Certificate issued by the Tahsildar prior to 11.11.1989 are valid.

7. The learned counsel for the respondent, on instructions, stated that based on the marks obtained by the petitioner in the main written examination, she was provisionally selected for an appointment as Typist on temporary basis against the quota reserved for ST and only due to the non-production of the community certificate issued by the Revenue Divisional Officer, the petitioner's name was not sent to the Government for issuing appointment order.

8. I have considered the rival submissions made by the learned counsel for the petitioner as well as the counsel for the respondent. As rightly pointed out by the lea