Less than a month after D. Poornachandran was appointed Director of Collegiate Education (DCE), the Madras High Court on Thursday stayed his appointment after prima facie finding that there is “something amiss” in it. His appointment was challenged by G. Geetha, who was superseded.
“It could be seen from the materials made available that in such appointments, whenever the qualified and eligible seniors are superseded and overlooked, [those] who have less than a year of service left for the superannuation, they are promoted as Officers on Special Duty on the same terms and privileges as enjoyed by the DCE,” Justice V. Parthiban said in an interim order.
The judge pointed out that this means due consideration and weightage is to be accorded to seniority for appointment to the post of DCE.
“In this case no material has been disclosed as to why the petitioner herein was overlooked when she has more than two years of service left for her retirement and what is the extraordinary and exceptional merit enjoyed by the third respondent (Mr. Poornachandran) for him to steal a march over his seniors,” he said.
“This court is also unable to understand as to why the petitioner herein has been appointed as Officer on Special Duty,” and her junior appointed DCE.
Objections overruled
The court overruled objections by Government Advocate Karthigai Balan and Mr. Poornachandran’s counsel L. Chandra Kumar, against granting interim relief to Ms. Geetha. The court “prima facie is of the view that the impugned appointment is questionable.”
The judge directed the respondents to produce relevant files pertaining to the impugned appointment and file their counter affidavit and posted the matter to September 22.
