CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Monday observed how the marks of the meritorious candidates were fabricated in the “cash for jobs” scam was a well-executed master plan, enabling scientific corruption.

The marks of the meritorious candidates were fabricated in the “cash for jobs” scam, for appointment as junior engineers and assistant engineers for the Metropolitan Transport Corporation (MTC) when V Senthil Balaji was the minister for Transport in 2015.

The observation was made by a division bench of justices R Subramanian and G Arul Murugan while hearing the writ appeals filed by A Nambi Venkatesh and others, whose marks were allegedly “lowered” to favour less meritorious candidates to be appointed, challenging the order of a single judge.

They filed a writ petition in 2021 seeking to quash the selection orders issued for appointing 33 junior engineers (JE) and 63 assistant engineers (AES) in 2015 following a notification issued on November 2, 2014, by the MTC during the tenure of Senthil Balaji.

The single judge (Justice Vivek Kumar Singh), in his order dated December 13, 2024, refused to quash the selection order and, instead, directed the MTC authorities to make a “fresh consideration” of the grievances of the petitioners. Challenging this order, they filed the appeals.

Advocate N Subramaniyan, appearing for the appellants, submitted that 33 JES were appointed against the actual notification of 13, while 63 AES were appointed against the notified figures of 40 in violation of the norms.

He told the bench the marks of the successful candidates were fabricated by lowering the marks they scored through weightage marks including the academic marks and the interview, thereby, they were denied their rightful job.

Referring to the fabrication of the marks while making entry in the personnel register from the interview register, the bench said, “It is a well-executed master plan enabling scientific corruption.”

It termed the way the high score of the meritorious candidates was lowered and low scorers were awarded high marks as a “mathematical gimmick”.
 

Comparing the scam in West Bengal in the sensational case of appointment of teachers, the bench commented that the “entire selection was rigged” there, but here, the process was fair but “final selection was wrongly arrived at”.

Pointing to the adherence to reservation norms in the appointments, the bench said there was a “breach of communal roster” as scheduled castes were selected for 3 posts instead of 6 as per the reservation.

The bench also came down heavily against the MTC officials and the law officers connected to the case for trying to delay the court proceedings.

“We are seeing an attempt is made to either delay the proceedings or to hijack this case from this bench,” it said.

Pointing to the arguments of a counsel appearing for one of the respondents, the bench said, “You cannot delay the inevitable.”

Following the completion of arguments, the bench reserved the orders.