SC stays Karnataka High Court's order on revising select list of JTOs

New Delhi: The Supreme Court stayed a Karnataka High Court's order, which directed the Karnataka Public Service Commission to revise the 2021 select list of Junior Training Officers.

A bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra issued notice to the Karnataka government and others on a plea filed by Chetan Bogar and 44 others, led by senior advocate Sanjay M Nuli, who questioned the validity of the high court's orders of March 20 and June 21, 2024.

Senior advocate P Vishwanatha Shetty represented the respondents who had approached the high court. He opposed the plea for stay.

The petitioners contended the appointment orders were issued on the basis of their eligibility and they have been in service for over one and half years.

They submitted they were given appointments subject to the final outcome of the main writ petition but are now on the verge of termination due to interim order.

"Without final adjudication on merits of the case, the petitioners herein are on the verge of termination for no fault of theirs. Main relief sought by the unsuccessful candidates is being granted by it order," they said.

The petitioners also contended the implementation of revised select list, without deciding the legality of earlier select list, is unjust. Additionally, it may lead to cancellation of appointments given to the petitioners.

Because, if the high court was of the opinion that grounds on merits would be appreciated at the time of final hearing of the writ petition on merits, then direction to implement the revised select list ought not to have been given, they submitted.

Following a recruitment notification of 2018, competitive examinations were conducted. Upon completion of the process, the KPSC published the provisional select list on July 23, 2021, consisting of 1367 candidates in total.

The KPSC published the final select list between January 20 January, 2021 and 25 May, 2022, for different trades and selecting 945 candidates in total. Starting from 9 September, 2022 to 17 November, 2022, appointment orders were issued to 399 candidates, including the petitioners herein and 546 candidates were awaiting the appointment orders.