MADURAI: After the RBI on Wednesday informed the Madras high court that Indian rupee has been devalued at three instances with the third instance having two steps, the Madras high court held that the answers three and four times are correct and directed the Tamil Nadu Uniformed Services Recruitment Board (TNUSRB) to rework marks and proceed with a sub-inspector of police selection process.
The court passed the order while hearing an appeal challenging the order of the single judge who by an order dated August 26 held that the Indian rupee was devalued three times.
After the order of the single judge, the state government deducted 0.5 marks from the candidates who have marked the answer as 'B - 4 times'. Hence, a few such aggrieved candidates filed an appeal challenging the order of the single judge. The appellants also sought for a direction to award them the deducted marks and to permit them to take part in the interview for recruitment.
Hearing the appeal during the previous hearing, the court suo motu impleaded Union ministry of finance and RBI and sought response as to the number of times the Indian rupee had been devalued since 1947 along with the year wise details.
When the case was heard on Wednesday, the counsel appearing for the RBI submitted that Indian currencies were devalued in the first instance on September 22, 1949, in the second instance on June 6, 1966 and the third instance in two steps on July 1, 1991 and July 3, 1991.
Taking cognizance of the submissions, a division bench of Justices N Kirubakaran and B Pugalendhi observed that strictly speaking the Indian rupee had been devalued only three times. However, since the third instance of devaluation involved two steps in 1991, it should also be construed as four times.
Hence, the judges observed that in the interest of justice, the court deems the correct marks for the question three times as well as four times as correct. Therefore, the judges allowed the appeal and directed the TNUSRB to rework the marks and proceed with the selection process and disposed of the appeal.