Chennai: Madras high court has dismissed a public interest writ petition challenging the amendments made to the Tamil Nadu Lokayukta Rules to enable appointment of serving or retired district judges to the posts of secretary and registrar of the institution.Advocate V Jeevakumar, the petitioner, argued that by expanding the eligibility pool to include serving and retired district judges, the Executive had exceeded its delegated rule-making power under the Tamil Nadu Lokayukta Act. He pointed out that the Act mandated the appointment of an officer not below the rank of a deputy secretary to the posts.Refusing to concur with his submissions, the first bench of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari and Justice G Arul Murugan said: “The statutory phrasing ‘not below the rank of’ sets a floor, not a ceiling. It prescribes a minimum baseline of official seniority and status.”It does not create an absolute bar against appointing judicial officers who satisfy or exceed that requisite rank. District judges in the state judicial service indisputably hold a cadre and status well above or equivalent to a deputy secretary to the govt, the court added.“Delegated rule-making under the Act explicitly empowers the state govt to frame rules regarding the conditions of service and appointment modes. Thus, allowing district judges to serve as secretary on deputation or contract is entirely consistent with the scheme of the parent act,” the judges said.Further, pointing out that the amendment was notified in 2020, they observed that the PIL had been moved six years after the GO was notified.
