SC stays Karnataka HC order on recruitment of 13K graduate primary teachers

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has stayed the Karnataka High Court’s division bench order allowing the state government to go ahead with recruitment of 13,352 selected candidates to the post of Graduate Primary School Teachers as per the list of March 8, 2023.

A bench of Justices Hima Kohli and Ahsanuddin Amanullah ordered that any appointment letters as stated to have been issued in favour of the candidates selected in terms of the final selection list of March 8, 2023 should be kept in abeyance.

The top court passed its directions on January 3, 2024, hearing a batch of petitions filed by Leelavathi N and others against the HC’s division bench order of October 12, 2023.

The petitioners were represented by senior advocate A N Venugopala Gowda and advocate Balaji Srinivasan, senior advocate C A Sundaram and advocate Chinmay Deshpande and advocates Shailesh Madiyal, Mahesh Thakur and others.

The court issued notice to the Karnataka government represented by D L Chidananda seeking a response within four weeks.

The petitioners were also allowed to file their rejoinder affidavit within two weeks thereafter.

“Till further orders, the directions issued in paragraphs 45 to 47 of the impugned (High Court’s) judgment shall not be given effect to. Any appointment letters as stated to have been issued in favour of the candidates selected in terms of the final selection list dated 08th March, 2023 shall be kept in abeyance,” the bench ordered.

A single judge bench of the HC had on January 30, 2023 had quashed the provisional selection list of November 18, 2022, acting on a batch of writ petitions filed by unsuccessful candidates, who were treated as general merit category instead of the OBC category they applied for on the basis of caste and income certificates.

The petitioners contended the division bench of the High Court erred in not appreciating that the caste/income certificate are issued by competent authority in the prescribed form, it is the only authority under the Act which can adjudicate upon such certificate, and that too in the manner provided under the Act and Rule.

The DDPI in the instant case who happens to be selecting authority could not have taken upon itself the jurisdiction to decide upon the validity of the income and caste certificate that is issued in the prescribed for by the competent authority, they said.