TNPSC: SC refuses to stay High Court order, allows selection of members

TNPSC: SC refuses to stay High Court order, allows selection of members The Supreme Court on Monday refused to stay a Madras High Court order quashing the appointment of 11 people as members of the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC), but permitted the state government to make new selections with a condition that an ex-judge who was denied extension will not be eligible

for re-selection. The apex court was hearing an appeal by the Tamil Nadu government against the December 22, 2016 order of the High Court which had said that the process of selection of members was “deeply flawed” and conducted without following any transparent process.

A bench, headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar, though admitted the state government’s appeal, but declined to stay the high court order by which the then J Jayalalithaa government’s decision to appoint the members on January 30, 2016 was termed as “defeating the very constitutional scheme for such appointments”. Former district judge V Ramamurthy, R Pratap Kumar, V Subburaj, S Muthuraj, M Sethuraaman, A V Balusamy, M Madasamy, P Krishna Kumar, A Subramanian, N B Punniamoorthi and M Raja Ram, IAS were appointed members of the TNPSC.

While permitting the state government to select members of the commission, the bench, also comprising Justices D Y Chandrachud and L Nageswara Rao, ordered to keep in abeyance the observations made by the high court on the members whose selection had been set aside. During the hearing, when Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi was assailing the high court’s decision, the bench said, “You have to satisfy the basics that the person holding the post of Chairman is qualified good enough.”

The CJI referred to a case when the Chairman of a staff selection board in a state, had an educational qualification of Class IV, which had gone against him. Rohatgi said the only thing that has to be kept in mind is that the candidate should not be a crook and has to be according to the Constitution and it should be left to the government to consider who is qualified.