A government order by any department stating that a particular degree is equivalent to another should be applicable to all the government departments in recruitment, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court has ruled.
The order was given in a petition filed by M K Rajeswari, who was denied a job as Commerce teacher as she had completed MCom and BEd after finishing BA Corporate Secretaryship, which the eEducation Department claimed was not equivalent to BCom.
She stated that on May 27, 2012 she appeared for the examination conducted by Teachers Recruitment Board for Post Graduate Assistants (2012-2013) for the subject of Commerce. The results were published on Oct 23, 2012 and she scored 109 out of 150 and her certificates were verified. However, when the final results were published in the internet, she did not find her name in the list of selected candidates, she approached the TRB and she was told that she was not qualified as her graduate degree was BA Corporate Secretaryship and not Commerce. Hence she approached the Court.
She contended that the rejection of her candidature was contradictory to the Government Order dated November 27, 2000, which states that BA Corporate Secretaryship is equivalent to B Com. Further the petitioner stated that she was eligible for appointment under women category and general category and her rejection is liable to be set aside.
The TRB contended that the particular GO was issued by Personnel and Administrative Reforms department and it was only for appointments in Cooperative Department and not for other departments.
Hearing the plea, Justice S Nagamuthu said that “once the Government states that BA (Corporate Secretaryship) is equivalent to B.Com, then it remains as it is.”
Hence the Judge directed the TRB to provide employment for the petitioner within six weeks.