The failure to produce a community certificate by the cut-off date results in disqualification from appointment, preserving the integrity of the recruitment process.

(Pronounced by Hon'ble Mr. M. Swaminathan, Judicial Member)

Seeking a direction to the respondent to issue an appointment order to him to the post of Upper Division Clerk,on the basis of the Select List issued on 28.10.2015, the applicant has filed the OA under Section 19 of the Administrative Tribunals Act, 1985 .

2. Brief facts of the case, as submitted by the applicant are as follows: The applicant possesses M.Sc., Degree in Marine Biology and belongs to Schedule Caste of Puducherry. In pursuance of the Notification, dated 11.08.2015 issued by the respondent for filling up 503 vacancies of Upper Division Clerk, the applicant applied for the said post and came out th successful and placed in the 5 rank under the Scheduled Caste category and called for certificate verification. The Applicant was not permitted to participate in verification on the ground that he did not produce fresh community certificate even though he produced the old certificate and hence appointment orders were not issued to him. Hence this Original Application.

3. The learned counsel for the applicant submitted that the applicant is entitled to get appointment to the post of UDC under the SC category on the basis of he Select List and denial of the same for producing Community Certificate, dated 03.08.2015 is arbitrary, discriminatory and also illegal. They have insisted to produce a fresh Community Certificate. 4. He further submitted that the applicant had approached the Authorities for Community Certificate on the ground that the applicant's mother is a native of Puducherry and she had been given in marriage to the applicant's father who is hailing from the adjacent village in Tamil Nadu and after the marriage the applicant was born and brought in Puducherry and has got his education also in Puducherry whereas the Revenue Authorities have refused to issue Community Certificate.

5. The main contention of the learned counsel for the applicant is that the community certificate which is issued to the applicant has not been cancelled by the Authorities so far and so, as per the decision of the Hon’ble Madras High Court in the case of Sakthi Devi’s case, the community certificate which the applicant has produced is valid till it is cancelled and on the basis of that the applicant is entitled to get appointment. He further submitted after the direction of the Hon’ble Madras High Court in WP No.7216 of 2024, the Revenue Authorities issued the Community Certificate to the applicant. Therefore, he prayed for the relief sought in the present OA.

6, In contrast, the learned counsel for the respondent submitted that there is no dispute regarding the facts of the case. He stated that the results of the competitive examination were published on 28.10.2015, and the applicant secured 40.25 marks, thereby being provisionally selected for the post of UDC under the SC category (R-3). The applicant was subsequently called for certificate verification on 16.11.2015, as per the Memorandum dated 05.11.2015 (R-4). During the verification, the applicant submitted a certificate (R-6) that combined Nationality, Nativity, Income, and Caste/Community details, issued for the purpose of availing an Inter-Caste Marriage Scholarship.

7. The counsel further submitted that, as per the Recruitment Notification, the applicant was required to produce a community certificate issued under “The Constitution (Puducherry) Scheduled Castes Order, 1964” and “The Constitution (Puducherry) Scheduled Castes Order, 2002” for the "Puthirai Vannan" community, as he had applied under the SC category specified in th