Karnataka HC sets aside selection lists of teachers for illegally altering norms mid-way

The High Court of Karnataka has quashed the provisional and final selection lists for Graduate Primary Teacher (GPT) posts for Kalaburagi and Bidar districts in the Hyderabad-Karnataka (H-K) region, holding that the State Government unlawfully altered the selection criteria after the recruitment process commenced.

The court directed the authorities to conduct the selection afresh by disregarding the criteria introduced midway through the selection process.

A division bench comprising Justice R. Devdas and Justice Brungesh M. passed the order while allowing petitions filed by Nagappa and others, aspirants for the posts, and setting aside the order of the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal, which had refused to interfere with the selection process.

For non-local cadre

The petitioners, most of them from outside the Hyderabad-Karnataka region, had applied for the 20% non-local cadre posts in Kalaburagi and Bidar districts.

The notification for recruitment was issued on March 21, 2022, for GPT posts for classes 6 to 8. The notification was accompanied by special instructions under a Government Order dated June 6, 2020, which required local candidates from the H-K region to choose between local cadre and non-local cadre posts if they were eligible for both.

What the norms say

As per the norm, if a local candidate opted for the non-local cadre, they would lose the benefits of Article 371J of the Constitution, which grants special reservation provisions to the H-K region.

Many non-H-K candidates, including the petitioners, applied for the residual 20% non-local cadre posts, expecting that local candidates would prefer the local cadre to retain Article 371J benefits. A provisional select list was published on November 18, 2022, and several petitioners found their names on it.

Everything changed on February 1, 2023, when the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms issued a circular withdrawing the option mechanism and allowing local candidates to compete even for non-local cadre posts as well, if eligible. Based on this circular, a fresh provisional select list was published on February 27, 2023, and the final list on March 8, 2023, which resulted in the petitioners’ names being dropped and replaced with candidates from the H-K region.

While the government claimed the impugned circular was issued to ‘protect’ the interests of the H-K candidates, the petitioners contended that a mid-stream change in the selection procedure amounts to changing the rules of the game after the commencement of the game, and is contrary to judgments of the apex court.

Year after notification

Rejecting the government’s claims, the bench said that the February 1, 2023 circular was issued nearly a year after the recruitment notifications and after the publication of the provisional select list. Hence, it amounted to ‘changing in the rules of the game during the course of the game’, which is impermissible in law as laid down by the apex court.

While quashing the circular, the court held that displacement of provisionally selected non H-K candidates was arbitrary and opposed to the principles of equality.

The bench directed the selection and recruitment authorities to issue appointment orders to the selected candidates within three months after preparing the selection list as per the original norms.