The Hindu : Kerala / Kochi News : Caste certificate with PSC is a public document: PIC

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Tuesday, Aug 26, 2008
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Caste certificate with PSC is a public document: PIC

Special Correspondent

Order to give applicant copies of caste certificates

PSC asked to provide copies of the certificates within 15 days
Community certificate not a private document when claiming eligibility

KOCHI: The Public Information Commission (PIC) has ordered the Kerala Public Service Commission (PSC) to give out to an applicant copies of caste certificates of three persons who have been rank-listed by the PSC.

The PSC had rejected a request by Minoy James of Kochi, a Latin Christian who had applied for a government job and taken the PSC test, for the copies of the caste certificates of three other Latin Christian applicants.

Since the PSC’s public information officer and appellate authority had both rejected the request, Minoy James sought the intervention of the Information Commission.

Allowing the appeal, the commission asked the PSC to provide the copies of the certificates to Minoy James within a maximum period of 15 days and without charging any fee for it.

“If a candidate belonging to the very same community is challenging or opposing or at least entertaining any doubt with regard to another person’s locus standi to obtain the benefit of community certificate, he has no other option but to obtain a copy of the certificate produced by that candidate,” the commission observed.

“In a country like ours, and in an administrative set-up like ours, wherein selection to public service is based on communal basis, at par with merit, the community certificate produced by those who are claiming eligibility under rotation or reservation is no longer a private document but out and out a public document,” it added.

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