Verification into the genuineness of a community certificate or caste status of a government employee is legally permissible even after his/her retirement from service, the Madras High Court ruled on Thursday (July 30, 2026).

A Full Bench (comprising three judges) of Chief Justice Sushrut Arvind Dharmadhikari, Justice K. Kumaresh Babu and Justice G. Arul Murugan held so while answering a reference made to it in view of conflicting decisions on the issue by coordinate Division Benches comprising two judges.

Concurring with the arguments advanced by Advocate General Vijay Narayan, the Full Bench wrote: “Since an appointment obtained by fraud is ab initio void, retirement does not wash away the foundational illegality and the retiral benefits flowing from a void entry into government service cannot be protected.”

The Chief Justice’s Bench also held that the public employers and scrutiny committees were empowered to verify the genuineness of a community certificate or caste status irrespective of whether the certificate was issued or the employment was secured before or after 1995. “Fraud has no expiry date, and the procedural mechanics established by the Supreme Court vide Kumari Madhuri Patil’s case in 1994 do not grant immunity to older deceptions,” the Bench said.

The Full Bench went on to hold that a lawful verification process into an employee’s caste status initiated prior to his or her retirement would not lapse upon superannuation and that it must be permitted to be taken to its logical conclusion. “To hold otherwise would allow dilatory tactics to defeat constitutional accountability,” the bench said.

Authoring the verdict for the Full Bench, the Chief Justice wrote: “While the law must take its course, we cannot tolerate the use of delayed procedures as a dangling sword or an engine of unnecessary harassment.” To balance constitutional integrity with fairness, the judges issued a series of directions.

They directed the Tamil Nadu government to immediately fortify the State Level Scrutiny Committee and district level vigilance committees with adequate manpower and anthropological experts. “This institutional strengthening must be targeted at eliminating massive systemic backlogs and ensuring rigid strict compliance with the multi point verification matrix established by the Supreme Court in Kumari Madhuri Patil’s case,” the judges said.

The court also directed all public employers to initiate and complete the process of verifying community certificates within the initial years of an employee’s service rather than waiting until the fag end of their career or after retirement.

In cases where inquiries are pursued post retirement, they must be conducted on a fast track day-to-day basis and completed within a maximum period of two months to avoid keeping pensionary benefits suspended indefinitely, the Bench ordered.

The Full Bench made it clear that the State shall not accept simple undertakings such as a promise that the employee’s progeny will not claim future reservation benefits as a mechanism to preserve accrued retiral benefits or insulate careers built on active misrepresentation. “Allowing a candidate to retain benefits stolen from genuine marginalised individuals is legally untenable and equivalent to allowing a thief to retain stolen property,” the judges concluded.

Published - July 30, 2026 11:28 pm IST