In an damning indictment of the irregularities committed by the Pondicherry University in facilitating and sustaining the appointment of a preferred candidate as a faculty member in the Centre for Pollution Control and Energy Technology/Environmental Engineering, the Madras High Court has quashed the appointment and called for a fresh recruitment process.
In the order, Justice Battu Devanand J. held that the entire selection process and appointment to the post of Assistant Professor in the centre was “illegal, arbitrary and malicious”, and directed the university to issue a fresh notification forthwith to fill vacancies for the post of Assistant Professor (earlier Lecturer) in all categories, including the OBC.
The judge was adjudicating separate writ petitions challenging the appointment to, and continuance in, the post by Tasneem Abbasi at the Centre for Pollution Control even after it was established that an OBC certificate produced for the appointment was fake and cancelled by a competent authority. The petitioners said that the candidate, however, was allowed to participate in the selection process for an unreserved vacancy in the post of Assistant Professor in the department, which was headed by her father, and appointed in 2010 without break of service and with pay protection.
In its counter, the university said that the respondent was earlier appointed as a Lecturer in the OBC Category when she submitted a certificate for the same, issued by a competent authority of the Puducherry government. Consequent to the cancellation of the certificate, her appointment against the OBC position was treated as vacated. However, as resolved by the Executive Council, the respondent was permitted to attend the interview on November 28, 2010, for the post of Assistant Professor under the general category, and chosen after the selection committee was satisfied with her qualification and merit.
Justice Devanand, while passing the orders, noted “all is not well in the administration of the Pondicherry University”, and the issue represented “a classic case of failure of the statutory institutions vested with the statutory functions.”
The judge further said that when the OBC certificate was cancelled, the university should have terminated her service as a lecturer, and initiated action against her for producing a false certificate. Instead, it allowed her to continue in the unreserved vacancy, invited her to participate in the subsequent election process for the unreserved vacancy, and appointed her.
Among the materials examined by the court were the reports of two committees — one constituted by the university; and the other on the direction of the Central Vigilance Commission — that had both submitted adverse findings against the appointment. The university-appointed three-member panel had said that the action of the varsity in allowing her to continue in the post even on a temporary basis, without taking action for producing a false OBC certificate, was against the basic principle of law, and called for scrutiny on the person acquiring M.Tech and PhD degrees during the concurring periods.
The judged noted that while one committee, which went into various appointments, including that of the respondent, had submitted an inquiry report on June 9, 2014, the university administration’s action of not placing the findings before the Executive Council was illegal, unjust, unreasonable, unjustified and arbitrary.The order castigated the Executive Council for resolving during a meeting on September 07, 2010, that “for the time being, she [the candidate] may be temporarily held against the vacant position of lecturer which is unreserved” and that she may be “asked to appear before the next selection committee as and when held for the unreserved vacancy and take a chance”. By passing such a resolution, the Council has shown undue favour towards the respondent without taking appropriate action, it said.
The judge said that as the order of cancellation of the OBC certificate had become final in the absence of a challenge, it has to be construed that the respondent had submitted the certificate, obtained fraudulently, to claim the lecturer post reserved for the OBC category. Further, while applying under the OBC category, she has also signed in the declaration to the effect that all information furnished were correct and complete, and that “if there has been suppression of any factual information, my service can be terminated, if selected”, he pointed out.
