HC restrains Pondi from releasing law officers’ recruitment result

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court had passed an interim injunction restraining the Puducherry UT administration from releasing the results of exams and interviews held for the post of law officers to represent the UT before the various courts and tribunals.

Justice D Krishnakumar passed the direction on hearing the petitions filed by A Karthikeyan and S Parthibane, two candidates who have applied for the position.

The petitioner sought a direction from the court to Puducherry UT to hold the recruitment process. “The UT’s law department released a notification in June 2021 to recruit law officers to represent the Puducherry government before, Supreme Court, High Court, lower courts, National Green Tribunal, Central Tribunal, and other courts. While the interview was held for 112 candidates till April 24, 2022, the law department had again called the candidates for fresh interviews on June 24, 2022,” the petitioners submitted.

They argued that the act of the Puducherry law department is against natural justice and the decision to conduct fresh rounds of interviews and exams was purely to favor candidates who are affiliated with the ruling party.

“The interview and exams must be held for the remaining people and the 112 candidates who were already interviewed by the government need not be called for a second interview, ” the petitioners noted.

Recording the submissions, the judge asked the UT to file a counter affidavit within four weeks. The court had also passed an interim injunction against the release of the exam results for recruiting law officers. The HC insisted the UT to keep two positions vacant till the case is disposed of.