The court has quashed the appointment of a deceased CPI(M) MLA's son to a post that was created to accommodate him.
The Kerala high court. Photo: PTI
New Delhi: The Kerala high court has said that creation of supernumerary posts and appointments for dependents of MLAs will cripple equality, robbing qualified candidates of a chance to secure a government job.
A division bench of Justices S. Manikumar and Shaji P.Chaly issued the order after hearing a challenge against the appointment of R. Prasanth – son of former Communist Party of India (Marxist) MLA the late K.K. Ramachandran Nair – in government service. The court has directed the Kerala government to terminate Prasanth, who was appointed to the supernumerary post of assistant engineer (electronics) in the public works department, the New Indian Express has reported.
In a petition seeking the issue of a quo warranto
against the appointment, one M. Ashok Kumar had contended that the appointment made on compassionate grounds was illegal as the MLA was not a government servant, The Hindu had reported.
The court said that any person who wishes to secure a government job will have to write tests and go through interviews, while Prasanth was appointed out of the sole consideration that he is the son of a deceased MLA.
The act of putting Prasanth on a “higher pedestal” violates law and overlooks the rules made to safeguard against this very occurrence, the court said. The Hindu report notes the court pointing out that the Kerala Cabinet took the decision to appoint Prasanth to a post that was going to be created for him even before he had submitted his application.
The court also said that guidelines to ensure that the families of government servants do not fall into financial hardship cannot be extended to relatives of MLAs.
The government cannot offer employment to those they ‘like’, it added, according Mathrubhumi’s English website.
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(With input from news agency language)
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