A candidate outside the zone of consideration and failing to satisfy all mandatory skill qualifications for public employment lacks the legal standing to challenge the rejection of their candidature for a post.

ORDER

The above writ petition has been filed seeking to quash the impugned order dated 13.10.2025 passed by the 3^rd respondent and to direct the 3^rd respondent to appoint the petitioner in the post of Village Assistant, by conducting cycle riding, within the time stipulated by this Court.

2. The petitioner would submit that the 1^st respondent had issued notification dated 09.10.2022, for the post of Village Assistant all over Tamil Nadu, and insofar as Mannarkudi Taluk is concerned, the vacancy was for 16 posts of Village Assistant. The petitioner who hails from Mannarkudi Taluk, had passed the written examination and was selected in the interview held on 07.01.2023. Thereafter, she had not received any appointment order. Therefore, she submitted her representation to the Hon'ble Chief Minister's Cell and to the 2^nd respondent on 09.01.2023. In reply, she received a letter from the 3^rd respondent stating that subsequent to notification and written examination, interview was conducted and candidates were selected.

3. While so, the petitioner had been repeatedly addressing her representations to the respondents on various dates i.e., 08.04.2023, 11.08.2023, 08.01.2024 and 23.01.2025, 24.02.2025 etc., requesting to issue appointment order. Lastly, on 24.04.2025, she had also addressed her representation to the 3^rd respondent seeking issuance of appointment order. Since, there was no response to her representation, she approached this Court in W.P.No.26483 of 2025 seeking a direction to the 3^rd respondent to consider her claim. This Court vide order dated 22.07.2025, had disposed of the writ petition, directing the 3^rd respondent to consider her representation dated 24.04.2025 on merits.

4. Pursuant to the directions of this Court, the petitioner was issued with the impugned order dated 13.10.2025, in and by which, her candidature for the post of Village Assistant was rejected.

5. Mr.T.Chandrasekaran, learned Special Government Pleader appearing for the respondents 1 to 3 would submit that 602 candidates have participated in the selection process and as per the ranking list, the petitioner finds a place at Rank No.574. He would further submit that the ranking list was prepared based on the marks obtained by the candidates and the petitioner had scored 61 marks out of 100. Since the vacancy for the post of Village Assistant in the Mannarkudi Taluk is 16, and the candidates who scored the rank 1 to 16, have been selected and issued with the appointment orders on 25.01.2023 itself, and they had also taken charge in the said post.

6. Heard the rival submissions and also perused the materials placed on record.

7. The writ petition has been filed on the premise that the petitioner having qualified in the written test and interview, the only reason for rejecting her candidature was on account of not being able to participate in the cycle ride test.

8. The perusal of the impugned order would reveal that the examination for the post of Village Assistant includes written examination, skill test and interview. As per the notification, the basic qualification required for the post of Village Assistant is that a candidate should have (i) passed 5^th Standard (ii) able to read and write Tamil and English and (iii) able to ride cycle. That the petitioner had attended the written examination on 04.12.2022 and had appeared for skill test and interview on 07.01.2023, the office records show would show that the petitioner had not participated in the cycle ride test, since she had an injury in her leg at that point in time. The petitioner had also admitted that she had not participated in the cycle ri