The Madurai Bench of the Madras High court today dismissed an appeal against the single judge's order on a petition challenging the re-employment of P Dhanbal as Commissioner of Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department for three years.
Dismissing the appeal filed by one Rajendran, Justices V Ramasubramanian and V M Velumani agreed with the single judge's view that the question of re-employment could be questioned only if it was against the statutory rules and the case of quo warranto was different from writ certiorari.
Besides the writ certiorari was not maintainable as the petitioner was not a competent person to question the re-appointment.
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The petitioner had also failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the appointment violated statutory rules, the judges said, adding the appointment was within rules.
Rajendran submitted that the Commissioner was appointed under Section 9 of HR and CE Act, under which re-employment of a retired servant was not contemplated. Besides he had been re-employed with the suffix 'until further orders', which meant it is a contractual appointment.
Rajendran contended that Dhanapal had been allowed to retire from service. A retired person cannot be a member of the service as per Rule 2(10) of the Tamil Nadu State and Subordinate service rules. Once a person retires, the vacancy should be filled only in a regular manner. Only if there is a dearth of qualified hands and retired person who has outstanding ability, is there scope for re-employing that person, he submitted.
