Viksit Bharat needs fair administrative system, says Karnataka HC while rapping State government for denying job for SC candidate for officials’ mistake

A view of High Court of Karnataka.

Observing that “fair, transparent and responsible administrative system is the need of the hour and wish of Viksit Bharat,” the High Court of Karnataka has criticised the State government for denying a Scheduled Caste (SC) candidate his rightful appointment to the post of Excise Guard merely relying on a typographical error of his date of birth in his SSLC certificate.

The Division Bench comprising Justice S.G. Pandit and Justice Chillakur Sumalatha dismissed the State’s writ petition challenging a 2018 Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal (KSAT) order that had directed the appointment of Manjunath K. to the post.

Mr. Manjunath cleared the KPSC’s competitive exam for Excise Guard post in 2010 but was denied appointment due to a date of birth discrepancy. His SSLC marks card showed his date of birth as June 15, 1980, while his transfer certificate and cumulative records contained the correct date of birth as 1982. The KPSC gave him one week to correct the error in SSLC certificate.

He approached SSLC authorities and also filed a civil suit, but before resolution, the KPSC published provisional and final selection lists, excluding him and selecting lower-scoring candidates.

The SSLC authorities later admitted the error, corrected its records, and issued a revised certificate. Mr. Manjunath then withdrew the suit. However, the KPSC refused to consider the corrected certificate, citing completion of the recruitment process.

Hence, he approached KSAT in 2011, which in August 2018 directed the State government to appoint him prospectively as Excise Guard or create a supernumerary post for him, if there is no vacancy.

The government challenged this before the High Court in 2021, citing various administrative difficulties, and contended that under a 2000 government circular, an SSLC date of birth cannot be altered without a civil court decree.

However, it was pointed out to the court that having lost his father at a young age, Mr. Manjunath was raised by his coolie-worker mother and educated in a government school and mistake of his date of birth in SSLC certificate came to his knowledge only when it was verified by the KPSC.

The Bench noted that the government’s claim was not correctness of his date of birth but manner in which it was corrected. The Bench also noted that the government itself had issued two notifications in 2009 and 2015 recalling 2000 circular on noticing difficulty faced by students and parents.

Also, the Bench found it strange that the KPSC and the government did not accept the correction of date of birth carried out by SSLC authorities, who were none other than the government’s functionaries.

“State has not only became an author of injustice, but took shelter under the very same circumstances to deny the lawful entitlement of an innocent, his plate of meal,” the court observed..

“An aspirant of public employment who met all required criteria and fulfilled all prescribed requirements should not be deprived of an opportunity merely because of a mistake of one official and improper exercise of authority by another official,” the Bench said, while giving eight weeks for the government to appoint him to the post as per the tribunal’s order.