The Supreme Court on Monday struck down the appointment of 11 members of Tamil Nadu Public Services Commission, which included a former district judge who was compulsorily retired on charges of corruption.
Giving another opportunity to the Tamil Nadu Government for making appointments afresh to the 14-member Commission, the Bench of Chief Justice JS Khehar, Justices DY Chandrachud and l Nageswara Rao ruled that the said former judicial officer shall not be eligible for reappointment.
The appointments were made by former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in January 2016 and were questioned by DMK leader and Member of Parliament TKS Elangovan before the Madras High Court. On December 22, 2016 the HC set aside the appointments noting that the state did not follow any criteria to appoint the members, who happened to be persons loyal to the ruling party AIADMK.
Refusing to stay the HC order, the apex Bench said that increasingly positions in State Public Service Commissions are being misused by the Governments in power without assessing the eligibility, integrity of selected candidates. CJI Khehar shared an experience during his tenure at the Punjab and Haryana High Court when he came across a case where the Chairman of the State Public Service Commission (PSC) was found to have educational qualification till Class 4.
The Bench said, “You (state) must consider laying down a criteria by which you can come to a satisfactory conclusion that the person holding this charge fulfills a certain level of integrity and eligibility. For these members have to finally conduct interviews to select Class I and Class II officers in the State.”
The list of persons appointed as TNPSC Members included former district judge V Ramamurthy, R Pratap Kumar, V Subburaj, S Muthuraj, M Sethuraaman, AV Balusamy, M Madasamy, P Krishna Kumar, A Subramanian, NB Punniamoorthi and M Raja Ram, IAS. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi who appeared for the State submitted that no qualifications can be added beyond what is prescribed by the Constitution. “These decisions are best left to the discretion of the Government,” AG added.
But the Bench asked the State to consider its advice as such appointments must inspire public confidence as well in the working of the Government.