S KUPPUSAMY Vs. DIRECTOR OF COLLEGIATE EDUCATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner who was an Associate Professor in the Department of Maths in the third respondent college, on retirement of one Mr.R.Lawrence Joseph Manoharan as the Head of the Department of Maths on 31.5.2011, sent an application dated 10.6.2011 to designate him as the Head of the Department of Maths being the senior most person in the department and by virtue of G.O.Ms.No.1785, Education Department, dated 05.12.1988. He also sent a similar letter to the first respondent the Director of Collegiate Education, Chennai. When he did not get any reply and when he found that the fourth respondent was designated as the Head of the Department by the third respondent, he has filed the present writ petition.

(2.) The prayer in the writ petition is for to forbear the second respondent, i.e. the Joint Director of Collegiate Education, Tiruchirappalli Region from approving the appointment of the fourth respondent as the Head of the Department of Maths in the third respondent college and for a direction to the third respondent to appoint him as the Head of the Department.

(3.) When the writ petition came up on 30.6.2011, notice regarding admission was ordered. The respondents have been served. The third respondent has filed a counter affidavit, dated 17.10.2011. In the counter affidavit the circumstances by which the fourth respondent was appointed and also the reason for denying the petitioner that status and the reason for not following the earlier order passed by this court in similar circumstances are set out, which reads as follows: