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2023 Supreme(Online)(MAD) 23787
2023:MHC:1157 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS DATED : 20.03.2023 CORAM THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE P.D. AUDIKESAVALU W.P. Nos. 7141, 7486 and 8059 of 2023 and W.M.P. Nos. 7211, 7578, 7582, 8326 and 8435 of 2023 W.P. No. 7141 of 2023:-
U.Kaviyarasan … Petitioner -vs-
1. Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission Represented by the Secretary TNPSC Road, V.O.C. Nagar Park Town, Chennai – 600 003.
2. The Controller of Examinations Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission TNPSC Road, V.O.C. Nagar Park Town, Chennai – 600 003.
... Respondents Prayer:- Writ Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, 1950, praying to issue a Writ of Mandamus, directing the Respondents to disclose the reasons for not including the register number 1901002075 of the Petitioner in the list of candidates provisionally admitted to onscreen certificate verification for the posts included in Combined Engineering Services pursuant to Notification No. 10/2022 dated 04.04.2022 to enable the Petitioner to rectify technical defects, if any, in his online application to enable the Petitioner to participate in the oral interview scheduled to be held on 08.03.2023 or any other subsequent date and the counselling under the Persons Studied in Tamil Medium (PSTM) quota for the posts included in the Combined Engineering Services.
W.P. No. 7486 of 2023:-
M. Saravana Kumar … Petitioner -vs-
1. Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission Represented by the Secretary TNPSC Road, V.O.C. Nagar Park Town, Chennai – 600 003.
2. The Controller of Examinations Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission TNPSC Road, V.O.C. Nagar Park Town, Chennai – 600 003. ... Respondents Prayer:- Writ Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, 1950, praying to issue a Writ of Certiorarified Mandamus, calling for the records of the Second Respondent herein in his list dated 22.02.2023 and the Annexure thereto, by which the online Application of the Petitioner was rejected for various reasons, quash the same in so far as it relates to the rejection of the online Application of the Petitioner (Application) No. 2210015397: Register No. 1805003103) and issue consequential directions to the Respondents herein to allow the Petitioner to attend oral test for selection by direct recruitment to the posts included in the Combined Engineering Services to be held from 08.03.2023 to 23.03.2023 or any other subsequent date.
W.P. No. 8059 of 2023:-
D.Dharmaraj … Petitioner -vs-
1. Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission Represented by the Secretary TNPSC Road, V.O.C. Nagar Park Town, Chennai – 600 003.
2. The Controller of Examinations Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission TNPSC Road, V.O.C. Nagar Park Town, Chennai – 600 003.
... Respondents Prayer:- Writ Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, 1950, praying to issue a Writ of Certiorarified Mandamus, to call for the records pertaining to impugned list dated 22.02.2023 published by the Second Respondent in pursuant to Notification No.10/2022 dated 04.04.2022 for posts included in Combined Engineering Services and quash the same in respect of rejection of the Petitioner and consequently direct the Respondents to include the Petitioner Register No. 2501008144 in the list of provisionally admittted to oral test for the posts included in Combined Engineering Services.
For Petitioner in W.P. No.7141 of 2023: Mrs. Nalini Chidambaram Senior Counsel for Mrs. C.Uma For Petitioner in W.P. : Mr. D.Baskar No. 7486 of 2023 For Petitioner in W.P. No.8059 of 2023 : Mr. T.Muthukrishnan For Respondents in all W.Ps : Mr. J.Ravindran, Additional Advocate General Assisted by Mr.R.Bharanidharan
C O M M O N O R D E R
Heard Mrs. Nalini Chidambaram, Learned Senior Counsel for the Petitioners in W.P. No.7141 of 2023, Mr. D.Baskar, Learned Counsel for the Petitioner in W.P. No. 7486 of 2023, Mr. T.Muthukrishnan, Learned Counsel for the Petitioners in W.P. No. 8059 of 2023 and Mr. J.Ravindran, Learned Additional Advocate General assisted by Mr. R.Bharanidharan, Learned Counsel appearing for the Respondents in all the Writ Petitions and perused the materials placed on record, apart from the pleadings of the parties.
2. The Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission, which is the Respondent in these Writ Petitions, had by Advertisement No. 613 issued Notification No. 10 of 2022 dated 04.04.2022 inviting applications from eligible candidates only through online mode upto 03.05.2022 for direct recruitment to the vacancies in the post of Combined Engineering Services.
3. The Petitioners in these Writ Petitions had applied online in furtherance to the said notification, but their register numbers had not been included in the list of provisionally admitted candidates to on-screen certificate verification published on 22.02.2023 in the official website of the Respondent based on the results of the written examination conducted on 02.07.2022. Complaining that no reasons had been assigned for not having included their names in the said list, the Petitioners have invoked the extraordinary jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution for appropriate directions.
4. It has been demonstrated before this Court by the Respondent that as the Petitioners have not uploaded certain essential documents in support of their respective claims for reservation in the notified vacancies, their applications have been rejected, and instead of submitting those required documents within the prescribed time, they have furnished some other documents. The specific details in that regard are shown in the self-explanatory tabular statement below:-
| S. No. | W.P. No. | Name of the Petitioner | Date of filing of Writ Petition | Required document (which has not been uploaded) | Document wrongly uploaded (instead of required document) |
| 1. | 7141 of 2023 U.Kaviyarasan | 03.03.2023 | PSTM certificate for Classes XI and XII | PSTM certificate for Classes IX and X | |
| 2. | 7486 of 2023 M.Saravana | Kumar | 07.03.2023 | Community Certificate | Certificate for Class XII |
| 3. | 8059 of 2023 D.Dharmaraj | 13.03.2023 | PSTM certificate for Classes X and XII | Mark-Sheet for Classes X and XII |
"Clause 5 of the 'WARNING' mentioned in page 1 of the notification.
In respect of recruitment to this post, the applicants shall mandatorily upload the certificates/documents (in support of all the claims made/details furnished in the online application) at the time of submission of online application itself. It shall be ensured by the applicants that the online application shall not be submitted without uploading the required certificates.
Specifically for candidates claiming PSTM:
Clause 12(B) [internal page page 18] second clause in example If the prescribed educational qualification is degree, then the candidate should have studied from the First Standard to SSLC, Higher Secondary Course and Degree through Tamil Medium of instruction. (Refer para 14 (R) of Instructions to Applicants).
Clause 12 (iv), (v) and (vi)
(iv) If no such document as evidence for 'PSTM' is available, a certificate from the Principal / Head Master / District Educational Officer / Chief Educational Officer / District Adi Dravidar Welfare Officer / Controller of Examinations / Head / Director of Educational Institution / Director / Joint Director of Technical Education / Register of Universities, as the case may be, in the prescribed format must be uploaded at the time of submission of online applications, for each and every educational qualification up t
