The High Court of Karnataka has directed the State government not to repeat the mistake of considering the caste and income certificates of the spouse in the case of married women during recruitment when the Supreme Court has already clarified that these certificates of parents are valid in law and not those of the spouse.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna issued the direction while allowing the petitions filed by Akshata Chougale and several others.
The petitioners, who are married women, had questioned the action of the selecting authority in treating them under the general category in the provisional selection list notified for the posts of graduate primary teacher for classes VI to VIII in government and aided institutions.
What selecting authority said
The selecting authority had said the petitioners would have to produce the caste and income certificates of their spouse and not of their parents as per the circular issued in 1986 by the government in this regard. The petitioners had submitted the caste and income certificates of their parents as issued by the competent authority.
The court said the selecting authority (Deputy Directors of Public Instruction) had no jurisdiction to interpret the caste and income certificates issued by the competent authorities to the petitioners.
“It is rather surprising that the State is time and again repeating the very same mistake and driving the applicants to knock on the doors of this court despite the declaration of law by the apex court and that of this court, by clinging on to a Government Order dated December 12, 1986, which is on the face of it unsustainable,” the High Court said.
Justice M. Nagaprasanna pointed out that the government’s 1986 circular cannot be valid when the apex court as well as the High Court have already clarified the law on considering caste and income certificates of parents and not of spouse.
The State government will have to direct the selecting authorities to act in tune with law and not contrary to law, and it is high time the government set the house in order and refrain from generating unnecessary litigation, the High Court said.
Continue recruitment
Meanwhile, the court directed the State government to treat the petitioner-applicants as belonging to the categories to which they had applied for based on the caste and the income certificates submitted by them and not to treat them as candidates belonging to the general category.
Further, the court gave liberty to the government to regulate its procedure by continuing the recruitment process for these posts and taking to its logical conclusion.
