MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Wednesday dismissed a petition filed by two candidates challenging the recruitment notification and results published by the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) with respect to the main written examination held for the post of sub-inspectors of police on December 21, 2025.
The petitioners had challenged the recruitment over the non-inclusion of Tamil language questions in Part-II of the examination, though the syllabus for Part-B mentioned that ‘effective usage of Tamil and English languages will be tested’. The Part-II question papers during the years 2022 and 2023 consisted of 10 exclusive Tamil questions, but these questions were replaced by other topics relating to logical reasoning, defeating the legitimate expectation of the candidates like them, the petitioners added.
However, additional advocate general Veera Kathiravan argued that the syllabus issued was only indicative in nature and meant to guide the candidates regarding the broad areas of preparation. He also pointed out that the Tamil proficiency of the candidates was already tested in Part I (Tamil Language Eligibility Test) of the examination.
Hearing both sides, Justice B Pugalendhi observed that the setting of syllabus is within the discretion of the recruiting authority and no legitimate expectation can be claimed that the same pattern would be followed every year. He also noted that even though the specific questions from the Tamil language have not been included in the question paper, the replaced questions are within the broad syllabus prescribed by the Board.
“The syllabus does not provide the break-up of the components within Part B (Psychology Test), and as such, the candidates are expected to prepare for all the components,” he opined.
However, the judge also pointed out that a horizontal reservation of 20% is provided for Persons Studied in Tamil Medium (PSTM) as per the notification. “The objective of this policy is to support the candidates who have studied in the Tamil Medium. Therefore, it would be appropriate if exclusive Tamil questions are also included in the main examination, in the future, to support this objective,” he observed, adding that he hoped the above suggestion would be considered while setting question papers in the future.
Another petition filed by six Grade II police constables seeking direction to award 0.5 marks each for four ‘incorrect’ multiple choice questions asked in the above written examination is still pending.