Bengaluru – The Karnataka High Court yesterday stayed the recruitment of 362 gazetted officers selected by Karnataka State Public Service Commission (KPSC) in 2011.

A division bench of Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee and Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar passed an interim order to this effect after hearing the Public Interest Litigations (PILs) filed by R. Renukambike and others.

The petitioners, who are job aspirants, have sought a stay on the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal’s (KAT) order of Oct. 19, 2016 wherein it had asked the State to issue appointment orders to the gazetted probationers (Group-A and Group-B) selected by the KPSC. They contended that the State Government’s decision to issue appointment orders based on KAT’s judgment was against recruitment rules. The Bench then directed the authorities concerned not to give appointment in terms of the KAT order during the pendency of the petitions.

Earlier, in a major victory to 362 gazetted probationers, the KAT on Oct. 19, 2016 had quashed the State Govt. order dated Aug. 14, 2014 annulling the final selection list.

Terming the Government’s order as unconstitutional, the Tribunal had directed the DPAR to issue orders of appointment to them within two months. The Govt. had cancelled the final list based on CID’s interim reports pointing to alleged irregularities in KPSC’s selection process.