The High Court of Karnataka on Friday directed the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) to hold a selection committee meeting within 30 days to prepare the selection list of 2016 of non-State Civil Services (SCS) officers to the Indian Administrative Service, Karnataka cadre.
A Division Bench comprising Justice A.S. Bopanna and Justice Srinivas Harish Kumar passed the order while dismissing a petition filed by the UPSC questioning the February 9, 2018 order of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), which had directed it to hold the meeting within 30 days.
The UPSC had invoked Regulation 5C of the IAS (Appointment by Selection) Regulations, 1997 and decided against holding the selection meeting as it could not complete the selection process by December 31, 2017, as per the mandate of law, because of the delay on the part of the State government in sending the list of eligible candidates for the three vacancies notified from the cadre of non-SCS posts.
However, the Bench said the process of sending names of eligible candidates was prolonged owing to judicial proceedings pending before the tribunal and the interim orders. The tribunal had issued its direction on the petitions filed by two officers — A. Lokesha, who is working as joint controller in the office of the Finance Officer, Bangalore University, and T. Venugopalareddy, who is finance advisor at the Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiac and Vascular Research, Bengaluru.
The Bench stated that the UPSC cannot put forth such a causal contention to deny the legitimate expectation of the two officers and other eligible candidates who had committed no fault. The (selection) process had begun as provided in the regulation, but was intercepted by judicial proceedings, it said, observing that the situation had to be salvaged by the court itself by enabling the completion of the process.
