Teachers’ recruitment: TRB asked to prepare provisional list

Justice N Anand Venkatesh offered the direction while disposing a batch of pleas, which alleged that in the selection of PG assistants in Chemistry the candidates, who secured high marks and should have been fitted in ‘General Turn’, have been fitted under Most Backward Class (MBC)/Denotified Communities (DNC) Quota. Owing to this, 34 persons, who would have got selected under MBC Quota, have been deprived of selection.  

In the notification, totally 356 posts were notified for Chemistry subject and out of that, 117 vacancies were available for MBC candidates and of them, 74 were backlog vacancies and the balance 43 vacancies were identified as the current vacancies. The petitioners counsel submitted that a person by name A Vasanthakumar, who had secured the highest mark and who ought to have been fitted under General Turn as a meritorious candidate, has been fitted within MBC/DNC Quota.  Likewise, nearly 34 candidates with high marks, even though belonged to other communities, were brought within General Turn, he said. 

However, Justice Anand Venkatesh on noting that the entire confusion has arisen due to the wrong reading of the provision under Section 27 of the Tamil Nadu Government Servants (Conditions of Service) Act 2016, said, “Where the candidates have secured high marks and come within the merit category, the candidates will have to be selected under General Turn, irrespective of their community.”

“However, when it came to MBC/DNC category, instead of fitting the candidates thereof in General Turn, they have been fitted in MBC/DNC Category. This mistake is very apparent on the face of the impugned Provisional Selection List, that has been made the subject matter of challenge in these Writ Petitions.  TRB went wrong in understanding the purport of Section 27 of the Act,” Justice Anand Venkatesh said.

Based on this, he directed TRB to fit in all the candidates under General Turn, only based on their merit and ranks, irrespective of their community, and, when it comes to the selection of candidates belonging to a particular community, who do not fall within the merit/rank, they should be considered under the community quota, based on the marks fixed for that community.

“While doing so, the backlog vacancies must be first accommodated and, only thereafter, the current vacancies must be filled up,” Justice Anand Venkatesh added.