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Synopsis

The Madras High Court recently imposed Rs 5 lakh cost on the Tamil Nadu government for challenging an order that had already been settled by a division bench and upheld by the Supreme Court.

Court dismissed the state's appeal against a single judge's direction to approve the appointment of a sanitary worker in a private minority college, terming the litigation as a needless re-agitation of an issue conclusively decided.

The division bench of Justices R. Subramanian and G. Arul Murugan, on March 3, 2025, rejected the appeal filed by the state government against St. Christopher’s College of Education, Chennai. The case pertained to the college’s right to appoint a Group-D employee and seek government approval for the same, as mandated under Rule 11(1) of the Tamil Nadu Private Colleges Regulation Rules, 1976. The state had attempted to bypass this obligation through an administrative order issued in 2013, which sought to fill such posts through contractual appointments.

However, the court pointed out that this government order had already been quashed in 2017 by a single judge in a case involving Nirmala College for Women. The decision was later upheld by a division bench in 2019 and further reinforced by the Supreme Court in 2022, which dismissed the state's challenge. Despite this, the government continued to deny approval for appointments in private aided colleges, leading to the present litigation.

The high court strongly criticized the government’s stance, emphasizing that once a judicial pronouncement attains finality, re-litigating the same issue amounts to an abuse of process. The judges also dismissed the state’s reliance on a conflicting single-judge judgment from 2023, stating that it contradicted the binding decisions of higher benches.

"We are unable to sustain the view taken by the learned single Judge in M.V.Ekanathan Vs. the Government of Tamil Nadu made in W.P(MD).Nos.2220 & 2221 of 2016 as the same runs counter to the Division Bench judgment of this Court, which has been upheld by the Hon'ble Supreme Court," said the bench.

Court stressed, "No doubt, the Government has got the power to regulate appointments in Government aided Colleges but, that cannot be done by way of administrative orders which run contrary to the rules that are already in force".

Expressing its displeasure over the government’s actions, court imposed a cost of Rs. 5 lakh on the state. Of this amount, Rs 2.5 lakh is to be paid to the appointed sanitary worker through the college, and the remaining Rs 2.5 lakh is to be deposited with the Madras High Court Legal Services Authority. The government has been given four weeks to comply, with a compliance report due on March 20, 2025.

Case Title: The State of Tamil Nadu vs. The Principal and Secretary, St.Christopher's College of Education