'State instrumentality not to resort to falsehood': SC pulls up KPSC for dithering stand on qualification for LDC

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up Kerala Public Service Commission for making  "vacillating and dithering stance" with regard to qualification for the post of Lower Division Clerk, holding it as largely responsible for a long-pending litigation, impacting lives, hopes and aspirations of nearly 1200 candidates. 

A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and Sanjay Kumar noted the KPSC, in a purely whimsical and arbitrary exercise of discretion on its part without actual application of mind as per required parameters, changed its stance before the High Court to claim that the higher qualification of Diploma in Computer Application than the notified certificate course would not be a disqualification to the posts advertised in 2012 for the Kerala Water Authority.

"A state instrumentality seized of the solemn responsibility of making selections to public services must maintain a high standard of probity and transparency and is not expected to remain nebulous as to its norms or resort to falsehoods before the court, contrary to what it had stated in its earlier sworn affidavits," the bench said.

The court dismissed appeals filed by Anoop M and others, who held higher qualifications, and the KPSC against the High Court's judgment of October 30, 2023.

It noted the Secretary of the KPSC made "incorrect" statement before this court by filing affidavits.

The bench pointed out notwithstanding this change in its approach, there is no getting over the fact that in the earlier round of litigation, the KPSC was uncompromising in its refusal to consider DCA as an eligible qualification for appointment to the post of LDC.

"We, therefore, have no hesitation in placing the blame for this entire imbroglio on the KPSC as it laid the genesis for this litigation owing to its changing stances at different points of time. We can only hope that the Kerala Public Service Commission learns from this experience and desists, at least in future, from trifling with the lives, hopes and aspirations of candidates who seek public employment," the bench said.

In the case, the bench said, the KPSC, except for furnishing data of the institutions offering DCA that were treated as eligible due to government recognition, did not undertake an independent assessment of the higher qualifications to determine whether candidates who possessed those qualifications would have put in equivalent or more number of hours in data entry and office automation than a candidate who underwent a three months course to obtain the prescribed certificate in data entry and office automation.