CHENNAI: Will studying the Law course in Tamil and writing the examinations in Tamil, come under the category of pursuing the course under the medium of instruction in Tamil? This vital question has been raised in the Madras High Court and a division bench of Justices V Bharathidasan and V Parthiban referred the matter to the Chief Justice for placing it before a larger bench for giving an authoritative ruling, on February 27 last.
The TN Public Service Commission, by a notification dated April 9, 2018, invited applications to fill up the 320 vacant posts of Civil Judges. R Boominathan and two others were the three among the contestants. They claimed in their applications they had studied the law course under the Persons Studied in Tamil Medium (PSTM) category. But, in fact, they had studied the course in Tamil and wrote the public exams in Tamil.
The petitioners contended that they had studied the law course in Tamil and wrote the exams in Tamil for all the years and they were successful and obtained their Law degrees. Therefore, they have indicated in their respective applications that they studied in Tamil medium, with the bona fide belief and impression that studying the course and writing the examinations in Tamil medium, would mean equivalent to studying in Tamil Medium of Instruction. However, the PSC rejected their plea even though there remained 111 posts vacant.
The bench noted that there were different judgments delivered by different division benches on the same issue. Hence, it is of the view that area of uncertainty in regard to the subject matter of discussion is to be removed once and for all, for a clear categoric pronouncement.
The bench directed the Registry to place the matter before the Chief Justice for referring the matter to a larger Bench for an authoritative pronouncement on the issues -- whether studying the course in Tamil and having written University exams in Tamil language will qualify the candidate for claiming reservation against the PSTM category. In the absence of Tamil as medium of instruction in the colleges, whether the candidates studying the courses in Tamil or having written the exams in Tamil, can be placed on par with PSTM candidates for purpose of claiming reservation earmarked for PSTM?