Recruitment must be conducted in fair, transparent manner: HC

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court had recently held that in the interest of the public, the process of selection and appointment in the government should be fair and transparent to make it foolproof from corrupt practices.

"..the recruitment process for any public post should be conducted in a fair and transparent manner. If the candidates are selected by any criterion other than merit and efficiency, the public authority will suffer for all the times to come," Justice Abdul Quddhose flagged.

The judge made this observation on dismissing a petition filed by one Easwari, who sought a direction to quash the recruitment of 54 junior assistants in the Coimbatore Municipal Corporation in 2021. She further pleaded for a direction to the government to appoint her as the Junior Assistant.

The claim of the petitioner was she was qualified to be considered for the post of Junior Assistant, but, she was appointed only as a sanitary worker though similarly placed compassionate appointees were given higher posts.

She further submitted that the corporation did not issue any recruitment notice for the positions. She pointed out that the interview for the recruitment was held on February 8, 2021, and the appointment orders were issued to 54 people on the same day for extraneous consideration. She further submitted that said exercise was completed for the sake of the then-local administration minister.

However, the government submitted that it issued notifications on two Tamil evening dailies on January 11, 2021, and there were no irregularities in the appointments. "They have been appointed based on communal rotation, reservation, and following all necessary appointment rules and regulations," the Corporation submitted.

The Corporation also clarified that only due to the reason that the Election notification for the Tamil Nadu Assembly was expected to be issued by the Election Commission at that time, they had to complete the selection process on the same day of the interview.