The judgment established that employment with a government corporation does not necessarily disqualify an individual from applying for government service under relevant rules and constitutional provisions.

1. The petitioner has filed the present writ petition seeking to challenge an order dated 22.10.2009 issued by the second respondent and after setting aside the same seeks for a direction to select and appoint the petitioner for the post of Accounts Officer, Class III in the Tamilnadu State Treasury and Accounts Services for the year 2007-08.

2. The writ petition was admitted on 26.10.2009. Pending the writ petition, this court directed the petitioner to attend the oral interview. But it was stated that such a direction will be subject to the result of the main writ petition. Further, a direction was also given in M.P.No.1 of 2009 directing the respondent TNPSC to keep one post of Accounts Officer in Class III kept vacant. In the application for interim stay, only notice was ordered. On notice from this court, the respondents have filed a counter affidavit, dated Nil (2010).

3. It is seen from the records that the petitioner was working in the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), (a Government of India owned company) as a Junior Accounts Officer. She joined as a trainee on 3.11.2003 and was granted appointment on 9.2.2004. She was also confirmed in the said post on 9.2.2006. The petitioner on coming to know that the State Government is recruiting for the post of Accounts Officer Class III in the Tamilnadu State Treasury and Accounts Services, had applied for the said post and wrote the examination held on 3.5.2009. She was provisionally selected for attending the interview. She was one among the 23 candidates. The interview was to be held on 27.10.2009. Even before she could attend the interview, she had received the impugned communication stating that she was not qualified to apply for the said post in the light of Rule 2(14) of the Tamil Nadu State and Subordinate Service Rules, which reads as follows:

(14)A candidate is said to be "recruited direct" to a service, class, category or post when, in case his first appointment thereto has to be made in consultation with the Commission, on the date of its notification inviting applications for the recruitment and in any other case, at the time of his first appointment thereto, he is not in the service of the Government of India or the Government of a State-

Provided that for the purposes of this definition a person shall be deemed to be not in the service of the Government of India or the Government of a State-

(i) If a period of five years has not elapsed since his first appointment to a service of the Government of India or the Government of a State; or

(ii) If he belongs to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes or Backward Classes:"

Therefore, she was informed that since she was working in the BSNL which is a Central Government undertaking and hence she was not eligible to attend the selection process. This fact was also indicated in the Commission's notification No.182, dated 9.1.2009. Note No.3 of Rule 5A of the notification reads as follows:

"Notwithstanding anything contained in para 2 (d) of the 'Instructions, etc. to candidates', persons who are in regular service under the Government of Tamil Nadu on 09.01.2009 may also apply even if a period of five years has elapsed since their first appointment under the Government of Tamil Nadu."

4. Pargraph 2(d) of the instructions referred to therein is a reproduction of Rule 2(14) of the Tamil Nadu State and Subordinate Service Rules. Therefore appointment with BSNL is considered to be a disqualification.

5. In the counter affidavit in justification of the stand that the BSNL is the department of Union Government, it was stated in paragraphs 8 and 9 as follows:

"8....it is submitted that the B.S.N.L. (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) though incorporation in the year 2000 was founded in the 19th century and was till the recent past, a department of the Union Government (viz. Department of Telecommunication) under the Ministry of Communications headed by a cabinet Minister. Further, it is a state owned telecommunication enterprise