SRI NAGARAJU N R Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Petitioners herein have preferred these writ petitions challenging the order passed by the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal quashing condition No. 2 imposed in the order of appointment issued to the Respondents stating that they are juniors to the 1998 batch recruitees and directing that the Respondents will be treated as seniors to the 1998 batch recruitees.

(2.) The Petitioners were selected as Group-A Officers (Assistant Commissioners), whereas in the other writ petitions. the Petitioners were selected as Group-B Officers (Tahsildars). The Government of Karnataka by their letters dated 03.11.1997 and 04.02.1998 requested the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) to make recruitment for 103 Group 'A' posts and 300 Group B' posts in accordance with the Karnataka Recruitment of Gazetted Probationers (Appointment made by Competitive Examination) Rules. 1997 (hereinafter referred to as the Rules'). On receipt of such request the KPSC advertised the vacancies vide notification dated 09.03.1998 inviting applications from eligible candidates. The KPSC after completing the selection process, published a provisional select list of 403 candidates on 28.09.2001. After publication of the said list, one Linganna Kuchabal and others filed applications before the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal in Application Nos. 7901 to 7909/2001 alleging certain irregularities in the valuation of answer scripts and praying for a direction to the KPSC to revalue the answer scripts. The Tribunal disposed of the said applications by their order dated 06.02.2002 directing the KPSC to revalue all the answer scripts and to publish a revised select list. Against the said decision of the Tribunal, the KPSC filed Writ Petition Nos. 12548 to 12589/2002 before this Court and this Court by order dated 11.10.2002 and 04.07.2003 directed the KPSC to conduct a random review of the answer scripts examiner-wise in respect of 19 optional subjects and one general studies and to complete re-valuation before 15.08.2003 and publish the select list by November 2003. The order of the High Court was challenged before the Supreme Court by one K. Channegowda and others in Special Leave Petitions (Civil) No. 11589 to 11639/2003. The Special Leave Petition came to be dismissed on 06.10.2005 upholding the order of the High Court. Thereafter, KPSC completed the selection process and published the select list on 28.02.2006 and forwarded the same to the Government for issue of appointment orders.

(3.) In the meanwhile, the Government also requested the KPSC by letter dated 16.11.1999 for making recruitment to 63 Group 'A' posts and 128 Group 'B' posts in accordance with the Rules. Accordingly, the KPSC issued a notification dated 15.12.1999 inviting applications for several Group-A posts in the Karnataka Civil Services including 20 posts of Assistant Commissioners (Group-A), 40 posts of Tahsildars (Group-B) and one post of Assistant Director of Agricultural Marketing (Group-B). Preliminary examinations were conducted from 27.02.2002 to 26.08.2002. The results of the main examination were published on 28.02.2004. One Maltesh Guttan and others filed applications before the Tribunal praying for a direction to the KPSC to revalue certain answer scripts. The Tribunal by an order dated 29.11.2005 directed the KPSC to continue and complete the process of selection and publish select list subject to final orders of the Tribunal. The KPSC completed the selection process and published the select list on 28.11.2005, inter alia, selecting 20 candidates for the post of Assistant Commissioners in the Karnataka Administrative Service (Junior scale), 40 candidates for the posts of Tahsildars and one candidate for the post of Assistant Director of Agricultural Marketing and forwarded the select list to the Government.