With the last two serving members of Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) retiring on Wednesday and Thursday, the commission has been left with only the Chairman and no members. While T. Kuppusamy retired on Wednesday, the other member S. Panneerselvam retired on Thursday.
Of the 14 members in the Commission, the appointment of 11 members was quashed by the Madras High Court in December last and three other members attained superannuation. While quashing the appointment of 11 members, the court had said their appointment was “deeply flawed” and was carried out without any transparency.
When contacted, TNPSC secretary M. Vijayakumar confirmed that the last member of the Commission retired on Thursday but stated that the Chairman was in service.
To a query on whether the absence of members would affect the functions of the TNPSC, he said, “The Commission’s functions would go on. It will matter only when interviews are conducted. The government has to decide on the members.”
According to the recruitment calendar of the Commission, over 3,000 vacancies are to be notified and recruitment would be made to fill them up during 2017. “Though initially there were only 3,000 vacancies, more vacancies have come up and we expect to fill up more vacancies,” Mr. Vijayakumar said.
When sought for a comment, former TNPSC chairman R. Nataraj said the Commission could function even with just a handful of members. “Initially, the Commission had only four to five members. It was during the 80s the Commission was expanded and posts for more members were created,” he said.
