CENTRAL ADMINISTRATIVE TRIBUNAL CHENNAI BENCH OA/310/00717/2025 Dated this, the 6^th day of January Two Thousand Twenty Six CORAM : HON’BLE MR. M. SWAMINATHAN, Member (J)

HON’BLE MR. SISIR KUMAR RATHO, Member (A)

K.Lakshmipriya, D/o. M. Kannan, No. 12, Second Cross Street, Saradambal Nagar, Puducherry 605005. …..Applicant By Advocate M/s. A.E.Ravichandran Vs.

1.The Secretary to Government-cum-Controller of Examination, Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (Exam Cell), Government of Puducherry, Puducherry 605001.

2.The Under Secretary to Government, Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (Exam Cell), Government of Puducherry, Puducherry 605001. ….Respondents By Advocate Mr. R. Syed Mustafa

ORDER

(Pronounced by Hon'ble Mr. Sisir Kumar Ratho, Member(A))

This OA has been filed by the applicant seeking the following reliefs:-

“to quash the rank list of the Wait List of Scheduled Castes, Notified by the 1^st Respondent in Notification No. A-12011/7/2025/DP&AR(Exam) dated 24.06.2025, for appointment to the post of Assistant (Group-B Non-Gazetted, Ministerial), in DP&AR, Government of Puducherry, in so far as placing the applicant in Serial No. 9 is concerned and direct the Respondents to place her in Serial No. 3, based on the marks secured by her in the Written Competitive Examination held on 22.06.2025 and pass such other further orders as this Hon'ble Tribunal deem fit and proper.”

2. The facts of the case as submitted by the applicant, are as follows, in brief:-

The applicant had applied for the post of Assistant in DP&AR, Government of Puducherry, under SC category, in response to the Notifiction issued by the 1^st respondent on 22.08.2024. She was selected in Tier-I Examination and become eligible to write Tier-II Written Competitive Examination which was held on 22.06.2025. As per the carbon copy of the Answer Coding Sheet, she ought to have secured 72.25 marks whereas in the exam result notified by the 1^st respondent dt. 24.06.2025, she was placed in Wait List for SCs in Serial No. 9, as if she had secured only 71.25 marks. It is submitted that out of 41 provisionally selected candidates under SC category, there is a bright chance that at least 5 candidates may not join, and in such a case, the chance of getting appointment by the applicant is very bright. The applicant on coming to know about wrong valuation of marks, she gave representations dt. 25.06.2025 and 30.05.2025 to the respondents, to revise the rank list of Wait List for SCs, however, no action has been taken. Aggrieved, the applicant has filed this OA seeking the aforesaid relief.

3.1. The respondents have filed their reply opposing the relief prayed by the applicant. It is contended that that the Original Application is premised on presumptions and misinterpretations that the OMR sheet of the applicant is wrongly evaluated. It is contended that the evaluation of the OMR sheets has been done by the scanning machines and computers. Hence, valuation method is uniform for all the candidates. Hence, it is contended that the Original Application is liable to be dismissed in limine.

3.2. The respondents have contended that the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (Personnel Wing), Puducherry, vide notification, dt. 22.08.2024, invited online applications to fill up 256 posts of Assistant with vertical and horizontal reservations as per the rules. The last date for receipt of online applications was extended up to 30.09.2024 through corrigendum, dt. 24.09.2024.

3.3. The respondents have contended that the Tier-I of written examination for recruitment to the post of Assistant was held on 27.04.2025 and results of were declared on 30.04.2025. 10766 candidates who were provisionally shortlisted for Tier-II examination were allowed to appear in the Tier-II written examination held on 22.06.2025. The answer keys of all question booklet series (A, B, C and D) was published on 22.06.2025 and results were declared on 24.06.2025. Certificate verificati