Petitioners Vedavathi and 69 others had challenged the cancellation of over 300 appointments by the State. Pulling up the State for the delay in decision, Justice Ram Mohan Reddy directed the Government to complete the inquiry quickly to provide a fair deal to the genuine aspirants to the posts.
Unhappy with the affidavit filed by Medical Education Minister Ramachandra Gowda, the HC directed his counsel to file a statement putting forth the deliberations undertaken by Gowda when he signed the list of recommendations.
Irregularities
Arguing for the State, Additional Advocate General K M Nataraj said students with low marks in the qualifying exams were given higher marks by adding extra marks and students who had scored high marks in the qualifying exams were given zero in the same category. All the irregularities were attributed to the selection committee.
The Court has also sought a segregated list by Monday and urged the State to remove candidates who were awarded extra marks and retain the list of others. It also suggested that the government could withdraw the cancellation notices of such appointments.
Another petition was filed by non-selected candidates, one of whom, Raghavendra Prasad, submitted a cheque allegedly issued by Member Secretary of the Selection Committee, Jayaram.
Prasad said he had paid Rs 2 lakh to Jayaram to obtain a post at the college but Jayaram returned Rs 1.5 lakh through the cheque when Prasad failed to get the job.
Notices have been issued to the State, Gowda, Director of the Hassan Institute of Medical Sciences and Jayaram.
Probe reveals irregularities
Bangalore: Additional Chief Secretary Abhijit Das Gupta, who investigated the recruitment scam in two government medical colleges, has also found large-scale irregularities in recruitment by the Medical Education Department.
Sources said the report, which was submitted to Chief Secretary S V Ranganath on Thursday, has also unearthed a lot of irregularities in allotting grace marks for the candidates. It is said that grace marks in ranging from five to 15 have been given whimsically to certain candidates.
There were many such discrepancies noticed by the officer, the sources said.
The Chief Secretary has forwarded the copy to the Chief Minister’s office.
Official sources said almost all the appointments made are against the rules. Of the 290 candidates appointed, nearly 150 belonged to Hassan. At every stage of recruitment, irregularities have been noticed, the report said.
Principal Secretary to the Medical Education department I M Vittal Murthy in his preliminary report on the scam, had stated that a lot of malpractices have taken place in the recruitment. The Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa had scrapped all recruitment on August 25 based on Vittal Murthy’s report.
As many as 86 posts were filled in Mysore medical college, while advertisement was given for only 47 posts. Call for interview to the candidate was given in the ratio of 1:10, but the rule book stipulates that it should be 1:3.
The Chief Minister, in all probability, will take an appropriate decision on the report after his return from China tour on September 15.
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