SECRETARY, TAMILNADU PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSIONversusA.B. NATARAJAN & ORS. ETC.

                       [2016] 5 S.C.R. 221


                                            ~:a
           SECRETARY, TAMILNADU PUBLIC SERVICE                        A
                     COMMISSION
                                      v.
                   A.B. NATARAJAN & ORS. ETC.
              (Interlocutory Application Nos. 15-18of2014)            B


                  (Civil Appeal Nos. 5877-5878of2014)
                         SEPTEMBER 15, 2016
             [ANIL R. DAVE AND DIPAK MISRA, JJ.]                      c
       Constitution of India: Article 142 - Exercise of power - Writ
petition alleging certain irregularities committed in examining the
answer books submitted by candidates - Challenge to the
appointments of selected candidates - Termination of services of .
selected candidates - Supre111e Court upholding the termination D
order - Review Petition - Held: Records showed that sufficient ti111e
was not given to the selected candidates to represent their case
before High Court - The candidates so selected had been into service
for several years, therefore, in the interest of administration and as
well as in the interest of candidates, candidates are allowed to
continue in service - Sen>ice law - Termination - Review.              E

      Partly allowing the review petitions and disposing of the
interlocutory applications, the Court
        HELD: The notices were -issued by the High Court to the
selected candidates, which were made returnable on 2•• March,         F
2011. The matter was finally decided on 4rh March, 2011. This
showed that sufficient time was not given to the selected
candidates to represent their cases before the High Court. In
the interest of administration as well as in the interest of the
candidates, who have already passed the examination held by
Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission and have been appointed          G
by the State of Tamil Nadu in State services before several years,
in exercise of powers und~r Article 142 of the Constitution of
Inc:lia, the candidates who have been working in different services
of Tamil Nadu State are allowed to continue in service,
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                                221
222            SUPREME COURT REPORTS                        [2016] 5 S.C.R.



A     notwithstanding any order passed by the High Court and
      confirmed by this Court. This course is adopted mainly for the
      reason that the selected candidates did not get sufficient
      opportunity to represent their case before the High Court and
      also the mistakes, if any, committed by the selected candidates
      have very often been ignored. Moreover, in any case, the original
B
      petitioners are not likely to r~ceive any benefit because in any
      case they had failed at the examination held by the Public Service
      Commission and therefore, question of giving any appointment
      to them at this stage does not arise. (Paras 7,8, 911225-B-H]
             CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: I.A. Nos. 15-18 of 2014
c     in Civil Appeal Nos. 5877-5878 of2014
                                         WITH
            I.A. N0.3 in C.A. No. 5879/2014 & R.P.(C) N0.2624/2014 IN
      C.A. No.5879/2014      '
            I.A. Nos.23-24 in C.A. No. 5880-5881/2014
D
            I.A. Nos.41-42 in C.A. No. 5882-5883/2014
            I.A. No.3 in C.A. No. 5884/2014 & R.P.(c) No.2119/2014
            in CA. No.5884/2014
            R.P.(C) Nos.2025-2026/2014 in C.A. Nos.5877-5878/2014
            C.P.(C) D 31357/2014 IN I.A. Nos.15-16 in C.A. Nos. 5882-
E     5883/2014
            C.P.(C) D 31358/2014 IN I.A. No.24 in C.A. Nos. 5880-5881/
      2014
            R.P.(C) Nos.2628-2629/2014 in C.A. Nos.5882-5883/2014
            R.P.(C) Nos.210-211/2015 in C.A. Nos.5880-5881/2014
            R.P.(C) Nos.201-202/2015 in C.A. Nos.5882-5883/2014 .
F
            From the Judgment and Order dated 04.03.2011 of the High Court
      of Judicature at Madras in.Writ Appeal Nos. 1063 and 1287 of2009.
            Mukul Rohtagi,AG, Subramonium Prasad, Sr.Adv. (AAG), Shyam
      Divan, K. Parasaran, A. K. Ganguli, P. S. Patwalia, Harin P. Raval, Sr.
G     Advs., M. Yogesh Kanna, Niraimati, V. Balachandran, R. Thirumalai,
      Ashok K. Mahajan, V. G. Pragasam, Prabu Ramasubramanian, Jayanth
      Muth Raj, Ms. Malvika J., Sureshan P:, Balaji Srinivasan, Ms. Srishti
      Govil, B. Balaji, R. Rakesh Sharma, Ms. R. Shase, Anand Varma,
      Ramendra Mohan Patnaik, Ms. Divya Anand, Nipun Saxena, Prashant
      Bhushan, Pranav Sachdeva, S. Mutu Krishnan, R.V. Kameshwaran Ayyar,
H
SECRETARY, TAMILNADU PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION                                223
             v. A.B. NATARAJAN & ORS.

G. Ananda Selvam, Mayil Samy K., Ram Sankar (For R.K. Adsure,                 A
Adv.) N. Subramaniyan, Reegan S. Bal, Jogy Scaria, Subrata Sas,
Varinder Kumar Sharma, Subhasish Bhowmick. B. Ramana Mu11hy,
C.K. Sasi, Naresh Kumar, Ms. Geetha Kovilan, Ms. T. Anamika. S.
Srinivasan, Ad vs. for the appearing parties.
      The Judgment of the Court was delivered hy                               B
       ANIL R. DAVE, J. 1. These review petitions and applications
have been filed by Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission and some of
the employees of the State of Tamil Nadu, who had been appointed in
Tamil Nadu State Services, but by virtue of the judgment dated 30'h
June, 2014 delivered by this Cou1i in C.A.Nos.5877-5878/2014, confirming       c
the judgment delivered by the High Court of Judicature at Madras in
Writ Appeal Nos. I 063 and 1287 of 2009 dated 4'h March, 20 I I, their
services are to be terminated.
       2. The case on hand has a chequered history, which has been
narrated in the judgment dated 30'h June, 2014 delivered by this Court in      D
C.A.Nos.5877-5878/2014, which is sought to be reviewed and therefore,
we do not narrate the facts once again.
       3. Suffice it is to state that an examination was held by Tamil
Nadu Public Service Commission for selecting candidates for certain
Tamil Nadu State services and it was alleged that some irregularities          E
had been committed in examining the answer books submitted by the
candidates. In the circumstances, a petition was filed in the High Comi
of Madras challenging appointments of the candidates who had been
finally selected. The said petition had been rejected by the learned Single
Judge and the appeal filed against the order of rejection had been allowed,
whereby services of some of the selected candidates had to be                  F
terminated. The said judgment of the Division Bench was confirmed by
this Court by virtue of the judgment, which is sought to be reviewed by
this Court.
       4. The learned counsel appearing for Tamil Nadu Public Service
Commission, State ofTamil Nadu and the selected candidates submitted           G
that the judgment is required to be reviewed for the reason that the
selected candidates did not get due oppol1unity before the High Coul1 to
represent their case and the State of Tamil Nadu was not a party to the
original litigation, though it ought to have been joined because the
candidates who were admitted to the State services, whose services
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224             SUPREME COURT REPORTS                           [2016) 5 S.C.R.



A     were sought to be terminated, had been appointed by the State of Tamil
      Nadu. It is also case of the applicants praying for review of the judgment
      that certain methods, which had been adopted by the High Court while
      coming to the final conclusion arrived at, by virtue of the judgment
      delivered by the Division Bench, were not proper and therefore, the
      selection made by Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission should not
B
      have been set aside, especially when all the candidates who had been
      selected by Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission and who had been
      appointed to different State services by the State of Tamil Nadu were in
      service for more than 7-8 years with due efficiency and their
      effectiveness as officers was never questioned even by their superiors
c     or by the State ofTamil Nadu. It was also submitted that grave injustice
      would be caused to those officers working for several years as their
      services will be terminated and they will not get any chance to get any
      employment elsewhere as they have already crossed the age limit for
      applying for any other government post by virtue of aftlux of time and
      that too for no fault on their part.
D
              5. On the other hand, the learned counsel appearing for the original
       petitioners before the High Court submitted that the judgment sought to
      ·be reviewed isjustand proper and therefore, there is no reason to disturb
       the said judgment, especially in view of the factthatthe review applications
       had been filed after a long time and irwould not be in the interest of
E      society to continue such officers, who had been improperly or irregularly
       selected. According to the learned counsel, a message must go to the
       society that no irregularity committed while examining the answer books
       can be tolerated
             6. Several submissions were made by the learned counsel
F     appearing for the original petitioners before the High Court with regard
      to use of colour pencils, pens etc. by the candidates while answering the
      question papers. Different views were expressed by different counsel
      even at the stage when the matter was pending before the High Court,
      when the High Court had appointed court officers to examine the answer
G     books. Different views were expressed by different persons and even
      different views were expressed when the answer books had been
      examined at the instance of this Court by independent examiners of
      Union Public Service Commission. Be that as it may, at this stage, when
      the candidates who were appointed and who have been working as
      State Officers for more than I 0 years or so and when the examiners,
H
SECRETARY, TAMILNADU PUBLIC SERVICE COMMISSION                                   225
     v. A.B. NATARAJAN & ORS. [ANIL R. DAVE. J.]

who have rechecked the answer books, have expressed little different             A
views and in view of the fact that the selected candidates did not get any
opportunity to represent their cases before the High Court as very little
time was given to them to appear before the High Court, it would be just
and proper to review the Judgment.
         7. It is not in dispute that notices had been issued by the High         B
Court to the selected candidates, which were made returnable on 2"d
March, 2011 and the matter had been finally decided on 4'h March, 2011.
It is thus clear that sufficient time was not given to the selected candidates
to represent their cases before the High Court and the said fact has
been now brought to the notice of this Court. Thus, the submission
made on behalf of the selected candidates are found to be correct and in
                                                                                  c
fact they did not get adequate opportunity to represent their case
effectively before the learned Single Judge.
       8. Having overall view of the matter, in the interest of
administration as well as in the interest of the candidates, who have
already passed the examination held by Tamil Nadu Public Service                  D
Commission and have been appointed by the State of Tamil Nadu in
State services before several years, in exercise of powers under Article
l 42 of the Constitution of India, wed irect that the candidates who have
been working in different services of Tamil Nadu State shall be continued
in service, notwithstanding any order passed by the Division Bench of             E
Madras High Court and confirmed by this Co~rt.
       9. We have adopted this course mainly for the reason that the
selected candidates did not get sufficient opportunity to represent their
case before the High Court, as stated hereinabove and upon hearing the
concerned counsel and upon perusal of the record and report received              F
from Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission as well as Union Public
Service Commission, we also find that the mistakes, if any, committed
by the candidates who have now been selected, were very often ignored
and therefore, it would not be just and proper to take such a harsh view
in the matter so as to render several reasonably good officers working
for several years jobless. Moreover, in any case, the original petitioners        G
who had filed the petition, are not likely to have any benefit because in
any case they had failed at the examination held by Tamil Nadu Public
Service Commission and therefore, there is no question of giving any
appointment to them at this stage.
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226             SUPREME COURT REPORTS                            [2016] 5 S.C.R.



A            I 0. For the aforestated reasons the review applications are allowed
      only to the above extent by exercising our power under Article 142 of
      the Constitution oflndia. Al 1interlocutory applications and the Contempt
      Petitions are also disposed of accordingly.


B     Devika Gujral                            Petitions and applications disposed ot: