Ineligible Candidate Is Stranger To Recruitment Process, Cannot Challenge Appointment- Madras HC Dismisses Petition

A Madras High Court Bench of Justice Abdul Quddhose has dismissed a writ petition challenging the appointment of candidates to a government position on the grounds that the petitioner was ineligible for the post and was therefore a stranger to the process.

In that context, the Court held that "The petitioner does not have an independent legal right to challenge the appointments of the respondent Nos.7 to 60 to the post of Junior Assistants, pursuant to the recruitment notification issued by the sixth respondent Corporation. The petitioner being ineligible to apply for the post of Junior Assistant, as per the recruitment notification issued by the sixth respondent Corporation, is not an aggrieved person, but, is a stranger to the selection process. Hence, she cannot legally maintain a Writ Petition, seeking to challenge the appointments of the respondent Nos.7 to 60 to the post of Junior Assistants by the sixth respondent Corporation."

Senior Advocate Om Prakash appeared for the Petitioner, while Additional Government Pleader RU Dinesh Raj Kumar and Counsel M Sricharan Rangarajan appeared for the Respondents.

In this case, the petitioner had challenged the appointments of candidates as Junior Assistants in Coimbatore Corporation through a writ petition. 

The Court noted that the petitioner was 38 years old when the appointment order was issued and that as per the recruitment notification, the age eligibility was 18 to 35 years. In that context, the Court held that "The petitioner who has crossed thirty five years of age is therefore, not eligible to make an application to the post of Junior Assistant as per the recruitment notification".

Observing that the petitioner did not have a legal right to challenge the appointments as she was ineligible, the Court held that she was not an aggrieved person but a stranger to the selection process. In that context, the Court placed reliance on the cases of Jasbhai Motibhai Desai Vs. Roshan Kumar, Haji Bashir Ahmed to hold that a stranger who is not an aggrieved person cannot maintain a Writ for either Certiorari or Mandamus. 

In furtherance, the Court also placed reliance on the case of B.Srinivasa Reddy Vs. Karnataka Urban Water Supply & Drainage Board Employees' Assn. to hold that the burden of establishing the malafides is very heavy on the person who alleges it. 

Therefore, the Court held that the petitioner did not have the locus standi to maintain the writ petition, and dismissed the same on the ground that "the petitioner is a stranger and not eligible to apply for the post of Junior Assistant due to her age".

Cause title: Eswari v. The Chief Secretary to Government of Tamilnadu and Ors.

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