The Madras High Court on Friday left it to the State government to explore the possibility of creating an additional post of Deputy Collector to accommodate a meritorious candidate, now serving as a trainee Deputy Superintendent of Police, whose candidature was rejected because he had affixed his signature on the answer scripts at the instance of the invigilator in the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) examinations held in October 2017.
Justice N. Anand Venkatesh said he was caught in a very delicate position of not being able to grant a positive relief to writ petitioner A. Babu Prasanth, despite finding him meritorious, because all 29 vacancies of Deputy Collector had already been filled up. “This extreme relief (of creating an additional post) is contemplated taking into account the sheer merit of the petitioner and the marks secured by him,” he said.
“Ultimately, the State must not lose loose the chance of getting the services of a meritorious candidate as a Deputy Collector. The first respondent (government) shall examine the same and pass orders within a period of two weeks from today. If the post can be created, the same shall be intimated to TNPSC... This process shall be completed within a period of four weeks after TNPSC receives instructions from the State government,” he ordered.
The judge pointed out that it had been proven conclusively that it was the invigilator who had forced the writ petitioner to affix his signatures on pages that there struck down by him for having written wrong answers. “Invigilators are supposed to know the instructions thoroughly and they should actually guide the candidates correctly. It is not known as to why the invigilator in this case asked the petitioner to put his short signature in the answer sheet,” the judge wondered.
