CHENNAI: For expecting a “Victorian standard” of discipline in its recruitment process, the police recruitment board of the State has received flak from the High Court. Coming to the rescue of a candidate, who was rejected by the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board for facing a police case for bursting firecrackers, Justice V Parthiban said that firecrackers were an integral part of Deepavali celebrations.
Setting aside the rejection order, the court ordered the board to consider the candidate’s claim for appointment as Grade-II constable. The issue pertains to a petition moved by A Balaji, who was not considered for recruitment as he has an FIR filed against him for bursting firecrackers during Deepavali.
“It looks like the board is only looking for candidates conforming to the Victorian standards of conduct and discipline. Such utopian expectation is a matter of pretentious and wishful idealism, divorced from mundane pragmatism,” said the judge.
“If display of festive mood and exhilaration during the celebration would amount to attracting disqualification in the understanding of the authority, it only exposes his hollowness and in that view of the matter, the rejection is nothing but a caricaturing of fair play in administrative action,” the court added.