Employers to verify community certificates within initial years of an staff’s service
‘Cannot tolerate the use of delayed procedures as a dangling sword’
Chennai: A full bench of Madras high court has held that verification into the genuineness of a community certificate or caste status of a govt employee remains legally permissible even after their retirement from service.Since an appointment obtained by fraud is void ab initio, retirement does not wash away the foundational illegality, and retiral benefits flowing from a void entry cannot be protected, a bench comprising Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari, Justice K Kumaresh Babu and Justice G Arul Murugan said while answering a reference made in view of conflicting judgements passed by various division benches of the court.“The employers and scrutiny committees are empowered to verify the genuineness of a community certificate or caste status, irrespective of whether the certificate was issued or the employment was granted prior to 1995. Fraud has no expiry date, and the procedural mechanics established through Kumari Madhuri Patil case do not grant immunity to older deceptions,” the bench said.A lawful verification process into an employee’s caste status initiated prior to retirement does not lapse upon superannuation and must be permitted to continue to its logical conclusion. To hold otherwise would allow dilatory tactics to defeat constitutional accountability, the judges said.While the law must take its course, we cannot tolerate the use of delayed procedures as a dangling sword or an engine of unnecessary harassment, the court said and issued a series of directions to the state govt.The state has been directed to fortify the state level scrutiny committees and district level vigilance committees with adequate manpower and anthropological experts. This institutional strengthening must be targeted at eliminating massive systemic backlogs and ensuring rigid, strict compliance with the multi-point verification matrix established in Kumari Madhuri Patil case, the court said.The bench also directed all public employers to initiate and complete the verification of community certificates within the initial years of an employee’s service, rather than waiting until the fag end of their career or after retirement.
