Chennai: Quashing the select list of candidates for appointment to the post of assistant engineer on redeployment basis in Chennai Port Trust (CPT), the Madras high court has directed the CPT to conduct a fresh selection by adopting a fair and transparent process without any element of arbitrariness.
A division bench comprising Justices K.K. Sasidharan and P. Velmurugan allowed the appeal filed by M. Velmurugan, which challenged an order of a
single judge, dismissing his petition assailing the selection of candidates to the post of assistant engineer.
According to appellant, the CPT called for applications from junior engineers, civil engineering department for appointment to the four vacant posts of assistant engineer (civil) on redeployment basis.
The appellant and other junior engineers submitted their applications. The selection was by holding interview. There was no written test. The total marks was 30 and it was divided equally for 1) qualification, 2) experience and 3) personality, smartness and performance.
The appellant and others attended the interview on February 21, 2009. There was no prescribed guidelines for awarding 10 marks for personality, smartness and performance.
The appellant and the other candidates secured very same marks for qualification and experience. However, the appellant secured only 6 marks for the third category. Others who got more marks under this category were
selected. Therefore, he challenged the select list. But a single judge
dismissed it, he added.
The bench said the counsel for CPT admitted that there was no
guideline for awarding marks under the third category. It was also an admitted position that the members of the selection committee have not given marks
individually to the candidates.
The CPT has been conducting selection in this arbitrary manner for a long time till the judgment in 2009. Similar selection giving marks for oral interview was the subject matter in the earlier litigation.
The division bench allowed the appeal in 2009 and quashed the selection list to the post of diesel loco driver by holding that in the oral interview, without any guideline, marks were awarded arbitrarily with the sole aim of tilting the balance in favour of a few candidates.
The judgment was upheld by the Supreme Court in September 2010. The court was informed that the CPT after the judgment has changed the selection procedure.The selection in question was made along with the selection which was quashed in 2009.
The issue was therefore, covered by the judgment of the division bench.
“We have perused the selection file in its entirety. We are convinced that marks were awarded arbitrarily under the category “Personality, smartness and performance’ with a view to favour the selected candidates”, the bench added and set aside the select list.
