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SC notice to KAS officers in job scam

Last Updated 01 May 2017, 18:44 IST

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notices to two Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officers and three employees the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) on a plea by the state government challenging quashing of criminal proceedings initiated against them for securing job on the basis of “fake caste certificates”.

A bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha sought response from officers Asha Parveen S M and Salma Firdose and KSPC staff K Narasimha, P Gopi Krishna and M B Banakar on the special leave petition filed by the state government.

The state government, through its standing counsel Joseph Aristotle, challenged the Karnataka High Court’s order of July 16, 2015. It contended that the high court’s order quashing the entire criminal proceedings, relating to the offence of cheating, forgery and criminal conspiracy, among others, against the accused had resulted in grave miscarriage of justice.

The case against the accused was registered in Vidhana Soudha police station on August 11, 2011, on the basis of the investigation conducted by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID). The enquiry was ordered by the high court into the irregularities in the recruitment process of Group A and B officers by the KPSC in 1998,1999 and 2004.

Besides, the five accused, the charge sheet was also filed against then KPSC member H N Krishna, who later became its chairman. The state government contended that the high court had on March 17, 2016,  dismissed a similar plea for quashing of the proceedings against Krishna. Subsequently, the apex court too had dismissed a special leave petition by Krishna against the high court’s order.

“The accused in collusion and with a criminal intent have made false endorsements. The materials on record, prima facie show that the accused under a criminal conspiracy have fabricated the documents as genuine, to cheat the other eligible candidates,” it contended. The state government also claimed the high court assumed the role of a trial court and virtually conducted an enquiry as to reliability of the evidence and sustainability of the accusations. The high court failed to appreciate that there were prima facie materials, which at the stage of inception cannot be examined meticulously.

Asha and Salma were selected to the posts of tahsildar and assistant registrar of cooperative societies respectively in the selection made by the KPSC in the 1998 batch of recruitments to the posts of gazetted probationers. Acting on their writ petition, the high court found that there were several mismatches and contradictions in the material produced along with the investigation report as against the charges levelled in the charge sheet filed by the CID on March 23, 2012. The high court also questioned the CID over its act of sending the caste certificates to a private lab for forensic tests.
DH News Service

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(Published 01 May 2017, 18:44 IST)

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