CHENNAI: Holding that the State has committed serious error resulting in unconstitutionality and thereby the fundamental rights of many eligible persons were violated on account of the fact that the appointments were made on contract basis from and out of the unsuccessful candidates of the selection made in 2015, the Madras High Court has issued a set of directives to the government.
Justice S M Subramaniam issued the directives on April 25 last while disposing of a writ petition from one Udayakumar, who had sought to quash a notice of the member-secretary of the Medical Services Recruitment Board dated September 12, 2018, and consequently direct him to conduct recruitment examination afresh for the selection of nurses in the service of the State Health department.
The directives include selection strictly following the recruitment rules in force and by following the procedures contemplated to fill up the posts of nurses in the Service Rules. The unsuccessful candidates of the selection process conducted during 2015 and appointed pursuant to the Government Orders (GOs) dated July 8, 2016, and October 16, 2017, of the Health department on contract basis, cannot be granted with the benefit of regularisation and permanent absorption in the sanctioned posts in regular time scale of pay. However, all the contract employees, who were appointed in violation of the recruitment rules by grant of illegal relaxation, shall be permitted to participate in the process of selection in the ensuing recruitment notification to be issued by the department.
The authorities shall not grant regularisation and permanent absorption in violation of the legal principles settled by the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in 2006. They shall allow the contract employees appointed in the cadre of nurses to continue in service till the sanctioned posts are filled up by way of regular recruitment process in accordance with the rules in force, the judge added and made it clear that soon after the regular appointments are made in accordance with the recruitment rules in force, the services of all those contract employees shall be discharged.
The authorities shall conduct the recruitment for the post of doctors, nurses, para-medical staffs etc., periodically as per the MRB Rules in force to avoid such unnecessary administrative exigencies in the matter of providing decent medical facility to the citizen, the judge said.