Appointment order for PSC job reaches Malappuram native nearing retirement age

Kalikavu: For most job seekers, receiving an appointment order is a moment of celebration. For Muchikkal Abdul Majeed, however, it came as a cruel irony.

After waiting more than two decades for a PSC appointment, the 60-year-old finally received the advice memo last month, only to find himself on the verge of retirement before he could even join service.

Majeed, a resident of Anchachavidi near Kalikavu, has sought the intervention of the Chief Minister and the ministers concerned in his quest for justice. If the authorities fail to act, he plans to seek legal recourse. His ordeal also serves as a reminder of how bureaucratic delays and administrative red tape can derail the aspirations of ordinary citizens, often at a tremendous personal cost

Majeed was 39 when he appeared for the PSC examination in 2005 for the post of Part Time Junior LPS Language Teacher (Arabic) in Thrissur district under Category No. 229/2005. In the rank list, which remained valid till 2008, he had secured the 12th rank.

The rank list also included a vacancy reserved under the NCA category. The PSC issued notifications three times to fill the post, but no eligible candidates came forward. Under normal circumstances, the vacancy should then have been offered to the next eligible candidate in the rank list, making Majeed entitled to appointment.

Government rules stipulate that the validity period of each notification cannot exceed three months. Even after three rounds of notification, the entire process should have been completed within a year. Instead, the vacancy remained unresolved for nearly 18 years, and the reserved post was reported to the Thrissur PSC office as a non-joining duty vacancy only on January 11, 2022.

What followed was yet another prolonged wait. It took almost four more years for the PSC to issue an appointment recommendation in Majeed's favour. By the time he finally received the appointment order on April 26 this year, he had already attained the retirement age.

To make matters worse, Majeed is also battling an error in his official records. According to his SSLC book, his date of birth is recorded as May 27, 1966, a mistake that he says occurred during school admission. However, he maintains that his actual date of birth is May 27, 1967 and claims to possess documents proving the same.

Majeed now hopes that, if the discrepancy in his records is corrected, he may at least serve for a year before reaching retirement age.