The Kerala High Court has directed the Kochi Metro Rail Limited (KMRL) to reconsider the appointment made to the post of HR General Manager. The High Court order was issued following a petition challenging the appointment of Pradeep Panicker as the General Manager, HR Admin and Training. The petition was filed by a Tamil Nadu native, who had applied for the same post.
The High Court ruled that KMRL should have been more careful while checking the eligibility documents submitted by the shortlisted candidates. Arogyaswamy, a native of Tamil Nadu, had filed the plea in Kerala High Court challenging the appointment.
Arogyaswamy got the third rank after the interview for the post of HR General Manager at KMRL. The petition demanded that Pradeep Panicker should be disqualified from the post. The plea further stated that the post required 20 years of experience in HR, but Pradeep Panicker had only 19 years and 10 months of experience in the field. Also, the defendant's claim that he had completed a two-year PG Diploma course from the National Institute of Personnel Management is incorrect as it is a part-time three-year course offered by the National Institute of Personnel Management under AICTE.
The defendant claimed that the interview conducted by KMRL was transparent, but Justice Devan Ramachandran who examined the documents said that the allegations made by the complainant could not be dismissed.
The court also observed that the work experience certificate submitted by Pradeep Panicker without even the seal in the employer's handwriting was not impressive. Following this, the court ordered Kochi Metro Rail Limited to reconsider the appointment within a month and to initiate further action. The court further added that the KMRL should not tarnish the image of the company by paving way for the illegal appointments.
