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V. Senthur v. M. Vijayakumar, IAS, Secretary, Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission

Contempt Petition (Civil) · 2021 INSC 591Decided 1 Oct 2021
Contempt Petition (Civil) No. 638 of 2017
Justice L. Nageswara Rao · Justice B.R. Gavai

Background

Employees selected via a 1999 Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission recruitment process disputed how their seniority was fixed in 2004: some argued seniority should follow their actual merit rank in the selection, not an arbitrary "roster point" system. After years of litigation, the Madras High Court ruled in their favour, and the Supreme Court upheld that ruling in 2016, directing that seniority be fixed based on merit rank per the Court's earlier decision in Bimlesh Tanwar v. State of Haryana. The petitioners alleged that the Tamil Nadu government officials and Public Service Commission never properly implemented this 2016 order and instead published a fresh seniority list that again ignored merit ranking, prompting multiple contempt petitions.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that although dismissing a special leave petition with reasons does not technically "merge" the High Court's judgment into the Supreme Court's order, the legal principle the Court stated while dismissing the SLP, that seniority must follow merit rank, not roster point, was binding on all authorities under Article 141 of the Constitution. Examining the revised seniority list the officials had published, the Court found it was still based on roster points and in clear breach of its 2016 order, and held the named officials guilty of contempt of court. It directed the authorities to republish a corrected seniority list strictly on merit within 12 weeks, and listed the question of what punishment to impose on the contemnors for a later hearing on 10 January 2022.

Lesson Learnt

Government authorities cannot sidestep a Supreme Court ruling by reinterpreting it narrowly or republishing the same flawed approach in a different form, doing so can result in individual officials being personally held in contempt of court, with punishment to follow separately.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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