MADURAI
The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Wednesday stayed the entire selection process for recruitment of Sub-Inspectors of Police ‘in order to safeguard the interest of Tamil medium candidates as the reservation under the Persons Studied in Tamil Medium (PSTM) category was not implemented properly’.
Hearing a batch of petitions filed against the selection process, a Division Bench of Justices N. Kirubakaran and B. Pugalendhi observed that if the selection process was allowed to proceed, the very purpose of the PSTM Act would be lost and the rights of the students who studied in Tamil medium would be violated.
The judges observed, “The PSTM Act has been passed only to see that the children from the State of Tamil Nadu are encouraged to study in Tamil medium and an incentive has also been provided by virtue of 20% reservation in employment. Moreover, the government also took into consideration the fact that the students who studied in Tamil Medium would have opportunity only in Tamil Nadu, whereas the students who studied in English medium would get opportunity outside of Tamil Nadu or anywhere in the world.”
Representing the petitioners, senior counsel M. Ajmal Khan submitted that the 20% reservation under the PSTM category was only applied at the final stage of selection and not at every stage, as done by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission. He pointed out that with regard to the selection for 1,064 SI posts, which were notified in the year 2015, 212 posts were meant for the students who studied in Tamil medium. However, only 34 candidates got the posts under the PSTM category.
The court observed that as the reservation was applied at the final stage, the required number of candidates under 20% reservation for Tamil medium was not available for selection. Without taking note of this, the authorities continued to follow the same pattern of selection. If at every stage the reservation was followed, definitely, candidates for all the posts under 20% reservation for the PSTM category would be selected, the judges said.
