The Madras High Court.
Credit: PTI File Photo
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday suspended the Madras High Court's April 3, 2025 order which stayed the recruitment process to fill 2,569 vacancies in 16 posts in the municipal administration and water supply department in Tamil Nadu.
A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and N Kotiswar Singh issued notice to S Sivakumar and others on whose plea the High Court passed its order.
Senior advocate P Wilson, appearing for Tamil Nadu, submitted that by the interim order, the entire selection process has been stayed until further orders, even though, the issue was limited with regard to grant of benefit of 20% reservation for those students or candidates who have studied in Tamil medium in a private polytechnic colleges.
He said only four such candidates had approached the High Court and therefore, there was no justification to stay the entire selection process which involved 2569 vacancies.
"The matter requires considerations. Issue notice, returnable within six weeks. In the meantime, the effect and operation of the interim order dated 03.04.2025 passed by the High Court of Judicature at Madras to the extent it stays the entire selection process shall remain stayed," the bench said in its order.
The court, however, clarified that the state government would not make final selection as against four vacancies.
According to the state government, the recruitment notification was published on February 02, 2024. The process itself saw participation of 2,00,499 candidates. After the written tests, document verification and interview, the counselling process for selected candidates to various posts was also completed in April 2025. The notified vacancies represented about 40% of the sanctioned posts in the Department of Municipal Administration and Water Supply.
"The interim order of stay was passed at a stage after issuance of letter of provisional selection to selected candidates halting the process at the eleventh hour. It has not only caused heartburn amongst selected candidates but also is directly affecting governance of the State with several critical field posts in the civic administration being unfilled," the plea contended.