The court held that the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission must publish a Reserve List as mandated by the Tamil Nadu Government Servants (Conditions of Service) Act, 2016, ensuring compliance with statutory provisions.

JUDGMENT :

(R. SURESH KUMAR, J.)

This intra Court appeal has been directed against the order dated 28.10.2022 made in W.P.No.15390 of 2019.

2. That the first respondent / Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission in short 'TNPSC' issued a notification for appointment to the post of Combined Civil Services Examination-II (Interview Posts) (Group-II Services) for the years 2014-15 and 2015-16 vide Notification No.7/2015 dated 30.04.2015.

3. The appellant was one of the candidates, who applied for the said selection process, where, after completion of the selection process, she has been ranked at Serial No.1572, she belongs to BC Community.

4. It is the case of the appellant / petitioner that though she secured the ranking of Serial No.1572 and the last person who was selected was in Serial No.1546, in BC category, she stood next to the last person who was selected and had there been a Reserve List, the appellant / petitioner would have been placed in the Reserve List as No.1 candidate, therefore whoever not joined from among the selected candidates or those who joined immediately left, by thus, if any vacancy is caused under BC quota, certainly the appellant / petitioner would have been in a position to be called for selection and she would have been selected and appointed. Therefore, the non-selection of the appellant / petitioner is due to the dispensing with the system of having the Reserve List of TNPSC, therefore the said dispensing of the Reserve List as has been done by TNPSC in the said recruitment is against the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Government Servants (Conditions of Service) Act, 2016 in short '2016 Act' and therefore, seeking a writ of mandamus, the appellant / petitioner had approached the writ Court to publish the Reserve List for the Regular Selection List pertaining to the Combined Civil Services Examination-I (Group-II) (Interview Posts) for the years 2014-15 and 2015-16 as notified in Notification No.7/2015 dated 30.04.2015 and consequently to fill up the unfilled vacancies caused due to non-joining / leaving of selected candidates with the candidates in the Reserve List to be published by TNPSC in the order of seniority and as per roaster within a reasonable time.

5. The said writ petition having been considered was dismissed by the writ Court through the order impugned dated 28.10.2022.

6. Assailing the impugned order passed by the writ Court, Mr.L.Chandrakumar, learned counsel appearing for the appellant would contend that, under Section 3(u) of 2016 Act, the Reserve List has been defined, which reads thus:

"3(u) "reserve list" means a list which is prepared so as to contain not less than 25% of the candidates of each reservation group including General Turn in the regular list and shall be in force until the regular list is drawn up subsequently."

7. Therefore, the publication of the Reserve List contains not less than 25% of the candidates of each reservation group including general turn and to keep the same till the next recruitment is published. It is must and is a mandate under 2016 Act, therefore such a mandate cannot be given a go-by by TNPSC as they have unilaterally seems to have taken a decision not to publish the Reserve List in the said recruitment, therefore, the appellant / petitioner is entitled to seek for such mandamus and the same since has not been considered in proper perspective by the writ Court by rejecting the writ petition through the impugned order which warrants interference at the hands of the Division Bench, he contended.

8. However, Mrs.G.Hema, learned Standing Counsel appearing for the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission would submit that, it is a Combined Civil Services Examination-II (Interview Posts) (Group-II Services). As several posts have been included in the same examination and selection process, the TNPSC thought it fit to introduce the counselling system. Since the counselling system has been introduced, the preparation and publication of the Reserve List may be a difficult