Madras HC comes to aid of employee left jobless after migration to another post

In an "out of box" relief, the Madras High Court has directed authorities to treat as voluntary retirement the resignation of an employee who quit service to migrate to another post where his selection was annulled after a litigation.

The transport department employee had resigned as a senior assistant engineer after 26 years of service in the Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC) to migrate to another post in the Transport Subordinate Service.

His services, however, were terminated after a litigation over his selection as Motor Vehicle Inspector in the Transport Subordinate Service.

Justice V Parthiban directed the Tami Nadu government to extend all retirement benefits to petitioner S Chellamuthu, whose selection as Motor Vehicle Inspector in 2009 was set aside by the high court on a petition by an unsuccessful candidate, resulting in termination of his services.

Left jobless, the petitioner had sought a direction to the state public service commission to call him afresh for an interview for the motor vehicle inspector post or reinstate him as a senior assistant engineer in Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation (TNSTC), the post he had resigned from.

''This is not a run of the mill case where the relief could be put in a straitjacket formula. In view of the peculiarity of the case and in extraordinary situation which calls for extraordinary remedy, an out-of-the-box relief need to be conceived and had to be rendered by this court...," the Judge observed in his recent order.

"In this case, absolutely, there was no fault on the part of the petitioner. He was removed from the motor vehicle inspector post because the authorities had not properly selected more qualified persons than him," he said.

"This is a fit case in the opinion of this court to apply larger principles of equity in order to secure the noble ends of justice," the Judge said and directed that his resignation letter be treated as a VRS, the Judge added.

The petitioner, a mechanical engineering diploma-holder, had joined as a junior engineer in the transport corporation in 1983. While working as a senior assistant engineer, he chose to migrate to the Transport Subordinate Service.

He was eventually selected and appointed as Motor Vehicle Inspector in November, 2009 following which he resigned from his post in the TNSTC.

While the appointment process was yet to conclude, his selection was challenged by the unsuccessful candidate on grounds of higher qualification and was set aside.