PARSAPPA H. Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is working as an Assistant Professor with SAVT Government First Grade College, Kudligi, Vijayanagara District [the Institution], and he has filed his application in A.No.10863/2025 with the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal [for short, 'KSAT'] impugning the second respondent's order dtd. 16/7/2025 keeping him under suspension pending initiation of departmental proceedings. The Tribunal has rejected the petitioner's application in A.No.10863/2025 by the impugned order dtd. 18/2/2026.

(2.) The Tribunal, by its order dtd. 19/12/2025, has rejected the petitioner's interim application for stay of the second respondent's order dtd. 16/7/2025. The petitioner has filed the petition in W.P. No.110004/2025 calling in question the Tribunal's order dtd. 19/12/2025. This Court, on 23/12/2025, has allowed the writ petition granting an interim order. The second respondent has thereafter continued the petitioner in service. Sri Sunil S. Desai, the learned counsel for the petitioner, and Sri Sharad Magadum, the learned Additional Government Advocate for the respondents are heard for disposal of the petition.

(3.) The facts relevant for the disposal of the present petition are stated thus. The complaint against the petitioner, and the reason to keep him under suspension, is that he has sexually harassed a student [the Complainant] who had enrolled in the Institution in the year 2021-22 for graduation in Arts. The Complainant has filed complaints alleging that the petitioner coerced her into physical intimacy under threat of disrupting her studies if she did not co-operate. The complainant has filed her first complaint with the principal of the Institution in July 2023 and again in August 2024.