K VIJAYALAKSHMI Vs. UNION OF INDIA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal by special leave is preferred against the order of the Central Administrative Tribunal in O.A. No. 367 of 1995 dated 12-1-1996.

(2.) The appellant volunteered in response to a Notification issued by the Chief Personnel Officer, Southern Railway, dated 16-9-1991 for filling up the vacancies for the post of Assistant Personnel Officer (Group B) against 25% quota reserved for Limited Departmental Competitive Examination for the year 1990. No doubt, the appellant was successful in the preliminary examination and also in the main written examination. Based on that, she was called for viva voce. Interview was conducted and a panel of selected names was prepared for appointment to the post of Assistant Personnel Officer, but the appellant's name did not find a place in the panel. The appellant preferred an application before the Tribunal on an earlier occasion in O.A. No. 1178 of 1994 praying for quashing the order of the General Manager dropping her name from the panel. That application was dismissed at the admission stage directing the appellant to go before the appellate authority and exhaust her alternative remedies. The appellate authority also confirmed the action of the General Manager in dropping the name of the appellant from the panel.

(3.) The reason for dropping the name of the appellant from the selected panel was that she and also two others had adopted unfair means in the examination and after issuing show cause notice and after verifying the unfair means practised by the appellant and others by taking the opinion of experts, namely, the experts in the Forensic Department of Tamil Nadu Government, it was held proved that the appellant had adopted unfair means in the written examination. Consequently, the decision to drop her name from the panel was taken.