CHENNAI: Perhaps for the first time in the State’s history, the Tamil Nadu Information Commission has recommended compulsory retirement for nine senior IAS officers who served as chairpersons of the TN Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB) since they failed to discharge their duties.
Incidentally, one of them has already retired. Passing orders on appeal petitions filed by candidates of competitive exams conducted by the TRB, State Information Commissioner S Muthuraj, in an order dated March 25, recommended that the Chief Secretary record in the annual confidential reports that these officers didn’t discharge their duties with accountability and transparency, and take legal steps to send them on compulsory retirement.
The officers recommended for compulsory retirement are: Surjith K Chaudry (already retired), Vibhu Nayar, Kakarla Usha, D Jagannathan, K Srinivasan, K Nandakumar, S Jayandhi, N Venkatesh and G Latha. They were TRB chairpersons from 2011 to 2020, and were appointed during the AIADMK regime. The SIC’s order said that though these officers had earlier recruited either through the UPSC or TNPSC, they didn’t manage the affairs of the TRB with accountability and transparency. It would be difficult for them to discharge their duties in other positions, the order said.
‘Same mistake has been recurring’
The commissioner also observed: “Checking the recurrence of mistakes is the duty of those at the helm of affairs. But here, in every examination, the same mistake has been recurring.” The State government isn’t bound to accept the SIC’s recommendations but the commissioner’s serious observations are likely to spark a debate on the functioning of recruitment bodies in the State.
Referring to the many writ petitions candidates filed in the Madras High Court challenging the ‘answer keys’ and results published by the TRB, the petitioners said when the court expressed its dissatisfaction over the answer key prepared by the board in WP No.21170 of 2012, the Board promised the court that such shortcomings wouldn’t recur. “Despite this assurance, the Board prepared wrong answer keys on many occasions, the petitioners have pointed out,” the commissioner added.
“Those who have done PhD are unable to get proper placement. But despite provision of job, appropriate salary, vehicle, spacious office, allowances, medical facilities, telephone, etc., those working in recruitment bodies have no accountability, and hence, errors like asking wrong questions in competitive examinations, releasing faulty answer keys, delay in conducting examinations, cancelling examinations, etc., have been recurring.
Since those at key positions in the TRB fail to work with accountability, efficient teachers and professors could not be appointed and this affects the quality of education,” the Commissioner noted. He added that those who filed these petitions were candidates of competitive exams conducted by the TRB for the posts of teachers and assistant professors. They complained that though the right answers were given, some were marked wrong.
Hence, through RTI queries, candidates sought the details of the books based on which the answers were declared. One of the candidates pointed out that the answers described as wrong by the TRB were indeed mentioned as correct in the books recognised by the government. But he was not given due marks, and his future was affected.