Madras High Court: The Court recently dealt with a case wherein it held that without issuing a new notification, posts for a certain job cannot be filled up on the basis of a previous notification no matter how urgent the need for employees in that post.
The facts of the case are that a petition was filed against the action of the respondents resorting to fill up a considerable amount of posts based on an earlier recruitment process undertaken by them without issuing fresh notification and without following the due recruitment process. The petitioners contended that this amounted to the process being illegal, arbitrary and unconstitutional and hence, prayed to the Court to direct the respondents to issue a fresh notification calling for applications for the recruitment process.
The respondents argued that since several vacancies had occurred for the contested post despite the previous selection process having ended before, the need of the hour necessitated the induction of the new employees without a new notification having been circulated.
The Court held in favor of the petitioners and noticed that the process indeed was held to the whims and fancies of the respondents and the call for certificate verification was done without even giving any advertisement. This would lead to the paralysis of the department, for which the employments were being made, as the employments would be made without giving an opportunity to more meritorious candidates. [Dr Sagaya Panimalar v. State of Tamil Nadu, 2017 SCC OnLine Mad 3853, decided on 17-7-2017]
