IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS RESERVED ON : 20.11.2025 PRONOUNCED ON : 28.11.2025 CORAM:

THE HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE T.VINOD KUMAR W.P.No . 21814 of 2019 M.Kamalakannan .. Petitioner vs Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission Rep. By its Secretary, Frazer Bridge Road, Chennai -3. … Respondent Prayer: Writ Petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, praying to issue a Writ of certiorarified mandamus to call for the records on the file of respondent in Circular No.6207/Ne.Tae.Tu-Aa 2 /2010, dated 23.05.2019 and quash the same as illegal, incompetent and without jurisdiction and further direct the respondent to appoint the petitioner as Assistant in Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department in the Tamil Nadu Ministerial Service, Tirupur District by issuance of notification.

For Petitioner : Mr.K.Prathap for Mr.M.Subash Mr.C.Deepak Kumar For Respondent : Mr.Karthik Jaganath Standing Counsel

O R D E R

Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing Counsel for the respondent and perused the records.

2. The case of the petitioner in brief is that he had pursued the Engineering Course in the Branch of Mechanical Engineering at Vinayaka Missions University, Salem, a Deemed University during the period 2004 to 2008 and secured first class; that on the respondent inviting applications from the candidates for filling the Non-Interview Posts in Combined Subordinate Services Examination-I, 2009-2011 (hereinafter for sake of brevity and convenience referred to as CSSE-I, 2009-2011) he had applied for the said post; that on submitting the application for recruitment, he was assigned with Reg.No.13603242 for the written examination conducted on 30.07.2011; that he had qualified and secured 2184^th rank in the written examination; that the respondent issued a letter stating that he was provisionally selected for the post of Assistant in Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department in the Tamil Nadu Ministerial Services, Tiruppur District; and that the above posting has been withheld owing to non- production of document called “Equivalence of Educational Qualification Certificate”.

3. It is the further case of the petitioner that though he had submitted the certificate of equivalence, the respondent did not reply to any of the written representations submitted by him; and that in the notification issued, under the eligible criteria, it has been only stated that any degree obtained from any University recognized by University Grants Commission (in short ‘UGC’), Distance Education Council/All India Council for Technical Education are eligible for the post of CSSE-I, 2009-2011.

4. Petitioner further contended that since, he had obtained Engineering Degree through Distance Education Mode from the University recognized by Distance Education Council, the respondent ought to have appointed him in the post of CSSE-I, 2009-2011.

5. It is the further contention that the educational qualification obtained through Distance Education Council was subject matter of consideration before the Hon'ble Supreme Court, and the Apex Court, by its order dated 29.08.2019, taking note of the difficulties and hardship the student would be subjected to if is stripped off their educational qualification secured through Distance Education Council, directed the AICTE to conduct examination two (2) times in respect of technical courses and the candidates appearing in the said examination and qualifying therein, the educational qualifications secured were directed to be considered as recognized; that he had appeared in the examination conducted by the AICTE pursuant to the directions of the Hon'ble Apex Court in C.A.No.17869 to 17870 of 2017; and got qualified; and that on qualifying in the aforementioned test conducted by the AICTE, he had approached the respondent and submitted a letter dated 20.03.2019 seeking for being appointed to the post to which he was qualified pursuant to the notification issued by the respondent.

6.