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HARIPRASAD CHAKRAPANI   03 November 2019

CAN MY APPOINTMENT TO GOVT JOB BE CANCELLED AFTER 9 MONTHS OF JOINING

I have passed TN govt exam, cleared certificate verification and interview 11 months back and appointed to govt service and joined duty on March 2019. Now on July 2019, a rejected candidate has filed a writ peition in HC stating that he was rejected wrongly during certificate vertification and hence wants my appointment to be cancelled and interview to be held for him and select him in place of me since he has secured higher marks than me during written test. However he has no allegation against me but has included me as a respondent.

I have two clarifications.

1) Whether my appointment can be cancelled as he as asked in his WP. I am now working for nearly 9 months in that job.

2) What will be the worst possible outcome in case if govt has really made a mistake by wrongly rejecting him. Will my appointment be cancelled.

Kindly assist.


Learning

 7 Replies

Dr. Atul [9013898936] (Lawyer, Scholar)     04 November 2019

That is unfortunate and I feel for you. Coming to legal remedies, ask your counsel to read Rajesh Kumar v. State of Bihar (Supreme Court, 13.03.2013), Sahil Aggrawal v. State of Punjab (Punjab & Haryana High Court, 26.04.2014) and similar judgments following Rajesh Kumar. In these cases, some candidates were denied appointment due to error by the State but there was no fraud or mala fide. State was directed to correct the error and appoint the persons found eligible after correction of error. The persons who had been already appointed were not removed, but their seniority was directed to be readjusted with the persons who were to be appointed after correction of error. There is a problem though in these cases and yours, which is that in these cases, these persons had been serving for 7 to 9 years. Maybe you could also do so if you get an interim relief not to disturb the appointments. Like I said, take the case ahaead based on the judgments that I've mentioned. All the best.

HARIPRASAD CHAKRAPANI   04 November 2019

Thanks for your advise sir. However in my case there was only 1 vacancy for which i got selected. Will that be any issue

HARIPRASAD CHAKRAPANI   04 November 2019

After the written test, the petitioner got rejected in certificate verification stage. Post certificate verification there was interview who has got its own weightage of marks for which the petitioner did not get selected at all. After interview only i got selected. Therefore the petitioner did not make it to the interview at all and in this scenario can he claim appointment now.

HARIPRASAD CHAKRAPANI   04 November 2019

He has not won in HC and all. He has now only filed a case in HC. FYI, my recruitment process happened in a fair manner.

Dr. Atul [9013898936] (Lawyer, Scholar)     04 November 2019

Both the judgmemts lay a precedent on fate of candidates selected or rejected on account of an error by the appointing authority with no error on part of the candidates and no fraud. In the judgments, error was in marking the answer sheets and in the querist's case, it is error in verification of documents. In my opinion, they constitute good law for the querist's case and I'd be happy to have it tested before the High Court had I been representing the querist. I'd also like to read a judgment taking a contrary opinion supported by judgments not empty oneupmanship :) I've researched as far as I want to, working pro bono :)

As for the querist, yes, having a single vacancy creates problems. From my experience, if your case is pleaded well on equity and estoppel, Court might ask the authority to see if both the candidates could be accomodated. That's not so rare before High Courts. However that's not something you can rest on and you have to contest on these two grounds with fervour!

 

Dr. Atul [9013898936] (Lawyer, Scholar)     04 November 2019

And Om Prakash saheb, please care to read the query. He has not secured appointment despite low marks but because of error by State qua verification of documents;  it's an irregularity, not an illegality. Also ji, nobody has won the case yet. And I can't see wherefrom you're reading that the interview was a sham in the present case - that's a fraud which has to pleaded in accordance with CPC and proved whichm insofar as I can see from the query, is not the case. If there's fraud even amounting to favoritism in interview,the entire process is vitiated but that's not what the querist has stated.

HARIPRASAD CHAKRAPANI   04 November 2019

Dr. Atul sir. Thanks a lot for your clear guidance.

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