Bengaluru: Karnataka High Court has observed that a fair, transparent and responsible administrative system is the need of the hour and the wish of Viksit Bharat.
In Aug 2008, KPSC issued a recruitment notification for the post of excise guards. On Oct 6, 2010, KPSC directed him to produce the originals of the required documents. His date of birth was clearly mentioned as June 15, 1982, in the transfer certificate and cumulative record. But in the SSLC certificate, it was wrongly mentioned as June 15, 1980. As he couldn’t get his corrected SSLC certificate in time, Manjunath’s name was left out, though he had secured 231 marks and a candidate securing 228 marks got selected. On the question of delay, the court rejected state govt’s defence of the Covid pandemic and pointed out that the tribunal’s order was passed on Aug 1, 2018, and the Covid-related lockdown started in March 2020. This writ petition was filed in Feb 2021, if we could say so, very leisurely.
Because of a mistake by one official and improper exercise of authority by another official, the division bench added, an aspirant of public employment who met all required criteria and fulfilled all prescribed requirements should not be deprived of an opportunity merely. Therefore, the state cannot take shelter under the umbrella of the pandemic and seek to condone the inordinate delay. You Can Also Check: Gold Rate in Bengaluru | Silver Rate in Bengaluru | Bank Holidays in Bengaluru | Public Holidays in Bengaluru | Bengaluru AQI | Weather in Bengaluru | Petrol Price in Bengaluru | Diesel Price in Bengaluru | CNG Price in Bengaluru | LPG Price in Bengaluru Stay updated with the latest Bengaluru news.
Based on the said certificate, he approached KSAT for inclusion of his name in the selection list. A division bench of Justices SG Pandit and Chillakur Sumalatha made this observation while dismissing a petition filed by state govt against an order passed by Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal (KSAT). K Manjunath, hailing from Tumakuru and belonging to the SC category, applied and later succeeded in the competitive examination. Accordingly, he produced his SSLC certificate, transfer certificate and cumulative record. The officials alerted him about that and asked him to produce the corrected SSLC certificate within two days, so as to consider his candidature. In the meantime, Manjunath approached the civil court for correction of the date of birth based on his application. KPSC issued a final selection list, leaving him out. KSSEB also issued a corrected SSLC certificate sans any decree of the court. The tribunal allowed his application. In the case on hand, the state has not only become an author of injustice but has taken shelter under the very same circumstances to deny the lawful entitlement of an innocent, his plate of meal. An unemployed person cannot be asked to pay the price of administrative negligence. Students, their parents or guardians will have no control over the maintenance of different registers by school authorities, the entries they make, the information they furnish to higher authorities which ultimately reflects in the certificates, whether it is in respect of name, surname, parents’/guardians’ names, date of birth, caste, etc, nor are they responsible for the mistakes committed by officials entrusted with those public duties. A welfare state has a greater obligation to protect the interest of subjects. It must set an example of fairness in action, responsibility in deeds and accountability in functioning. Courts cannot permit, the division bench observed. But it did not do so. For the state, this issue may be one among thousands or lakhs. However, for an unemployed person, to earn bread and butter, every day is a challenge. Thus, on every count, the state fails, the court added while outrightly rejecting the petition filed by state govt. Download the TOI App.
Join conversation Share your thoughts in the comments Be respectful · TOI community guidelines Thus, before the outbreak of the pandemic, more than a year was available for the state to approach this court vindicating its grievance.
Challenging the said order passed on Aug 1, 2018, state govt filed this petition only in 2021.
The SSLC certificate was not corrected in terms of any decree passed by the civil court; it added that as on the date of verification of documents, Manjunath was overage as per the date of birth mentioned in the SSLC certificate produced by him, according to state govt. Once the entire process of selection is completed, no candidate can be permitted to enter into service and thus, the tribunal exceeded its power, state govt added. However, after perusing the entire material on record, the division bench pointed out that when KPSC had given an option to the applicant either to produce his SSLC or equivalent qualification marks card or transfer certificate or extract of cumulative record, it should not have relied solely upon the SSLC certificate to form an opinion in respect of the date of birth. Surprisingly, it is not even the case of the petitioner-state that the date of birth mentioned originally is the correct one and thereby the correction effected is improper or without basis, the bench added. Author Of Injustice