Madras HC Disposes Of PIL On TNPSC Exams

Madras High Court today disposed of a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) seeking a direction to the Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) to refrain from issuing any instructions, directions or orders to the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) with regard to publication of results for various examinations conducted by it.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice A P Shah and Ms Justice Prabha Sridevan disposed of the PIL filed by one S Prabhakaran after a submission from Senior Counsel D Rajagopalan, appearing for the Election Commission (EC), the EC will have no objection if the TNPSC published the list of candidates and forwarded it to the state government.

Following the submission, the Bench said after receiving the list, it will be open for the government to approach the EC for making appointments, in which case, the Commission will pass appropriate orders.

In view of Mr Rajagopalan's statement, no orders were necessary on the petition, the Bench added.

In his petition, Mr Prabhakaran submitted he came across a news item in a daily in which it was stated the CEO had issued directions to the TNPSC not to publish the results of the examinations already conducted by it till the elections in the state were completed.

Conducting the examination and publishing the results was a duty cast upon the TNPSC and such Constitutional duty cannot be curtailed or interfered with by the EC which was another Constitutional body.

The Model Code of Conduct was meant only for the executive and political parties. Under the guise of enforcement of the code, the EC shall not transgress on the powers and functions of another independent Constitutional body by attributing to itself a power not vested in it by the Constitution, he contended.

(UNI)