KOCHI: The High Court said that the inclusion of B.Techs and Diploma candidates without a National Trade Certificate (NTC) in the Meter Reader/Spot Biller PSC rank list of KSEB is not legal. The rank list should be rearranged and appointments should be made by excluding them and including only those with NTC. With this, the future of 308 appointed people has become uncertain. 200 people who received advice memo will be ousted from the list.
In the PSC notification dated 28th January 2015, the qualification was 8th class and NTC from ITI. However, the rank list was prepared by including electrical and electronics engineering graduates and diploma holders. A division bench consisting of Justice Amit Rawal and Justice C S Sudha considered the appeal filed by Muhammad Naeem from Thrissur and Nizamuddin from Kollam who questioned the practice.
The PSC rank list was published on March 19, 2021. Albeit the petition questioning this existing in court, the government issued a notification on January 21, 2022, recognizing an Electrical Diploma as the higher qualification of ITI.
Accepting the argument of the government and PSC, the single bench dismissed the petition on December 7, 2022. However, an appeal was filed later.
A new notification will have to be published after cancelling the rank list with the court order. As of now, those who secured the jobs are people with high qualifications. If the court annuls the rule, it needs to be seen how this is going to end for people who were appointed recently. The decision to retain ITI certificate holders and expel others is left to the PSC.
The rank list was published seven years after the notification. In 2016, there were 1721 vacancies. But in 2019, KSEB has cut 799 vacancies, making it 922 vacancies.