The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court recently allowed the plea of a differently abled candidate, who sought a direction to the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB), to interchange the backlog vacancies within the special category to accommodate him.
The petitioner, J. Ashok Kumar of Madurai, an ortho-impaired person applied for the post of Assistant Professor (Commerce) under the special category. However, the five backlog vacant posts were earmarked for visual- and hearing-impaired people. He sought a direction to be considered for the post and claimed that he was eligible under the differently-abled category.
He said that under Section 36 of the Persons with disabilities (Equal Opportunities, Protection of Rights and Full Participation ) Act, 1995, when the vacancies are not filled up due to non-availability of a suitable person under the category, it can be carried over to the succeeding year.
If the vacancy is not filled even in the succeeding year, the vacancies can be interchanged, which means eligible candidates irrespective of visual, hearing and ortho-impairment can be considered for the vacant posts, he added.
Justice R. Suresh Kumar observed that he was eligible and added that no candidates were available under the visual- and hearing-impaired category for the current year.
However, the court said merely because the exercise of interchangeability is to be undertaken, the petitioner could not be considered outright for the post. Other such eligible candidates, including the petitioner, shall be considered and appointments shall be made on merit, the court added.