The Madras High Court on Monday dismissed a public interest litigation petition filed by Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder S. Ramadoss, seeking a direction to the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) to provide caste-wise details of selections made by it for government jobs from January 1989 to August 2020.
Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and R. Hemalatha held that the petition was not maintainable, and, hence, they were not inclined to entertain it. The Division Bench, however, observed that the petitioner would be at liberty to pursue his remedies under the Right to Information Act of 2005 to obtain the requisite information.
It is a well settled position of law that the writ jurisdiction of the High Court cannot be invoked if a litigant has an effective alternate remedy, the judges said.
Though the petitioner had complained that the TNPSC refused to share caste-wise data with him under the RTI Act, the judges said he could go on appeal against the refusal.
‘Caste is a reality’
During the course of the arguments, petitioner’s counsel K. Balu told the court that caste was an existing reality in society, and it could not be denied even by those who speak about marching towards a casteless society.
He said the goal of a casteless society could be achieved only when inequalities prevailing in society were erased. Pointing out references to caste in the names of law firms, he said such names found a place even in the cause list printed by the High Court every day.
For due share
Describing Dr. Ramadoss as a crusader of social justice, he said the petitioner’s aim was to ensure that the Backward Classes get their due share in education and employment.
Claiming that the TNPSC would certainly have individual caste-wise data regarding the selections made for Group I to Group IV vacancies in government services since 1989, he said the commission was intentionally refusing to divulge such data, claiming that it was in possession of only category-wise (OC, BC, MBC, SC, ST and so on) data.