"The process of selecting the candidates based on village reservation cannot be sustained in law because it is unconstitutional," Justice Vinod K Sharma said.
The whole process of selection violates Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution as it had resulted in denial of consideration to all eligible persons, the Judge said.
The Judge was disposing about 32 pleas, challenging the selection process of appointing workers under the Puratchi Thalaivar MGR Noon meal Scheme and Integrated Child Development scheme, which, the petitioners said, was biased and done to favour candidates preferred by the officials.
The judge, in his order, said Tamil Nadu government had issued several government orders from time to time, but these were not consolidated therefore leading to confusion with regard to appointment and process of selection.
According to the G.Os, the State follows the rule of reservation which considers a district as a unit. Therefore, the State besides making reservations for different categories should have advertised the posts in each district, the judge said, observing that the state had advertised vacancies considering villages as a unit.
"This process makes the selection illegal as it not only takes the right of consideration to eligible persons, but violates constitutional mandate as there cannot be 100 per cent reservation. In case the posts are advertised district wise and candidates selected on merit, then those persons can be appointed to different schools as per reservation quota."
Quashing the selection process, the judge directed the State to consolidate all government orders and invite applications clearly indicating the posts and reservations under each category, among others.
A selection committee should be constituted to consider the merit of every candidate and selection should be made purely on merit, the judge said, and directed the state to conduct the selection process in two months.
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