Court upholds cut-off date of July 15, 2024, for Assistant Surgeon eligibility; says extending deadline would be arbitrary
Chennai: The Madras High Court has dismissed a batch of writ petitions filed by MBBS graduates seeking inclusion in the Assistant Surgeon (General) selection process, ruling that their failure to register with the Tamil Nadu Medical Council (TNMC) before the stipulated cut-off date of July 15, 2024, rendered them ineligible.
Justice C.V. Karthikeyan, citing legal precedent, held that the selection notification’s terms were “sacrosanct” and could not be altered mid-process. The petitioners had applied for TNMC registration between July 12 and August 12, 2024, but completed the certificate verification only after the deadline. One petitioner received the certificate on July 16, another on July 22.
The Court rejected arguments citing portal congestion, stating that diligent candidates had completed verification in time by visiting the TNMC office in person. “This Court is not the Selection Board,” the judge observed, adding that judicial interference to extend cut-off dates would lead to “extreme arbitrariness” and prejudice those who complied with the deadline.
The ruling relied heavily on the earlier case of Dr. M. Sai Ghanesh vs Government of Tamil Nadu, where the court similarly upheld the July 15 deadline.
“The Notification cannot be tampered with… unless the Rules permit,” the court noted, affirming that fairness in recruitment must be maintained.
