M PALANIMUTHU Vs. SECRETARY TO GOVERNMENT; CHAIRMAN INDIAN OIL CORPORATION LIMITED; J ARUN KUMAR; K MOHAMMED SHERIFF; K KANNIGA PARAMESWARI; KISHEN RAFIZ

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, a practising Advocate, has filed this Writ Petition styled as a 'Public Interest Litigation' praying for issuance of a Writ of Mandamus to direct the respondents 1 to 9 to ban campus interviews and to forbear the Central and State Government, Public Sector Undertakings in participating in campus selection for recruitment of candidates.

(2.) The petitioner states that there are thousands of Graduates and Post Graduates who are waiting for employment after completing their courses from reputed Universities/Institutions and have registered themselves in the Government Employment Exchanges. While so, the Public Sector Undertakings such as the Indian Oil Corporation Ltd., the fourth respondent, the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd., fifth respondent, the Indian Space Research Organisation, the sixth respondent, Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd., seventh respondent have resorted to selection of candidates by conducting campus interviews. The petitioner would further state that each of the Public Sector Undertakings have their own recruitment policy and they are required to recruit candidates only from the Government Employment Exchanges or by giving public advertisements through accredited media. The petitioner would further state that resorting to campus interview selection results in denying employment opportunity to the candidates, who have already obtained the necessary qualification and after having registered themselves in the employment exchange, eagerly waiting to be selected and by this method of campus interview, the right to secure public employment has been infringed and therefore, such recruitment should be banned and if already candidates had been selected, their selection should be cancelled.

(3.) The petitioner did not implead the selected candidates though a contention was raised that their selection has to be cancelled. However, subsequently the candidates who were selected sought for impleadment in the Writ Petition, which was ordered and the selected candidates have been impleaded as respondents 10 to 85.