Eligibility for public employment must be assessed as of the recruitment notification's cut-off date; late qualifications, regardless of circumstances, do not confer rights for selection.

ORDER :

The Writ Petitioners had applied for the post of Assistant Surgeon (General).

2. All these Writ Petitions have been filed seeking records relating to the selection list issued consequent to Notification No.01/MRB/2024, dated 15.03.2024 with specific reference to Clause 6B(III) modified by Notification dated 14.05.2024 and selection list in Ref. No. PSL.No.01/MRB/2024 dated 20.02.2025 and to quash the same so far as the non-inclusion of these writ petitioners are concerned.

3. All the writ petitioners have raised the same ground questioning the Notification and therefore, a common order is passed with respect to these writ petitions.

4. All the writ petitioners were duly qualified to apply for the post of Assistant Surgeon (General). They had completed their Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (M.B.B.S.) Degree. Thereafter, they were issued with Provisional Certificate. Thereafter, they also completed their one year internship programme. On completion of internship, they were issued with Provisional Certificate-II. After receiving that particular certificate, they had applied with the third respondent for registration as registered Medical Practitioner.

5.The following are the details as to the date on which the petitioners applied for permanent Registration with the Tamil Nadu Medical Council / third respondent and the date on which the approval was granted and the time slot chosen by the writ petitioners and the date on which the certificates were verified for permanent registration.

6. This Court had occasion to examine similar batch of writ petitions in W.P.No.6533 of 2025 etc., batch [Dr.M.Sai Ghanesh Vs. Government of Tamil Nadu, represented by its Secretary, Medical Services Recruitment Board, Chennai and others, wherein this Court had passed the following common order:-

“9. The uniform arguments that have been advanced by the learned counsel in all the three Writ Petitions is that the Provisional Certificate -II, which was issued by Dr.M.G.R.Medical University, was issued only on 11.07.2024. It had been contended that these three writ petitioners had completed the course in the College, which runs for about five years in the year 2023 and had been issued with what is called as Provisional Certificate - I. But that is not sufficient. They have to undergo the Internship for a period of one year, which they have successfully completed. The learned counsels pointed out that thereafter, the Provisional Certificate-II had been issued by the University, which was the certificate certifying that they have undergone the course in the College and also successfully completed their Internship as required for a further period of one year. It is uniformly contended that this particular certificate/Provisional Certificate-II was issued only on 11.07.2024. The learned counsels pointed out that all the three writ petitioners had applied for the post of Assistant Surgeon (General) and they were also permitted to write the examinations and that therefore, they had a legitimate expectation that there co