The Madras High Court has held that constitution and abolition of posts are the government's prerogative and declined to direct the state government to create a post of librarian in Chennai Corporation so as to accommodate a woman employee incharge of a civic body's library.
Justice K K Sasidharan, dismissing the writ petition of a superintendent-cadre employee holding additional responsibility of librarian, said "it is not open to the court to direct the government to sanction the post of librarian...She wanted this court to exercise judicial review by acting like an appellate authority over the decision taken by the government and to substitute its views."
"The government is the best judge to take a decision as to whether a particular post should be created. Several factors have to be taken into account before taking such a decision. Financial implication is also a relevant factor to be looked into before taking a decision for creation of post," he said.
G Dhanalakshmi was initially appointed record clerk in Chennai Corporation on compassionate ground. After joining service on October 21, 1994 she acquired bachelor and masters degree in library and information science and later M Phil as well. She was promoted as Junior Assistant in 2000 and became Assistant in 2006, and Superintendent later.
As she was incharge of the library maintained by Chennai Corporation and contributed substantially to its growth, the Corporation Council resolved to request the government to create a post of librarian.
The proposal was sent to the government, which, however, rejected it, following which she filed the petition for a direction to the government to create the post.
The Corporation told the court that she was as librarian incharge on duty arrangement and that such duty would not give her any right to challenge the order passed by the government.
Government opined that there is no need for creation of a post of librarian as it would involve financial implications.
Justice Sasidharan referred to the government's statement that when geographical area of Corporation of Chennai was expanded from 174 sqkm to 426 sqkm and 42 urban/rural local bodies were merged, 784 additional posts were sanctioned to serve the public. Government also abolished 1,150 temporarily created posts on February 7, 2013 to reduce financial burden.
The judge said government had given sufficient reasons to justify the decision to reject the Corporation's proposal to sanction a librarian post.
"This Court would not be justified in upsetting the decision by substituting its views. There is absolutely no merit in petition," he said.
