Bengaluru, (DHNS): In a setback to the 2011 batch KPSC candidates, the Karnataka High Court on Monday quashed the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT) order directing the state government to issue appointment orders for the posts of gazetted probationary officers.

The court further stated that the government was right in withdrawing the recruitment notification. However, the KAT's order quashing the government's withdrawal notification and directing the state government to issue appointment orders to the selected Karnataka Public Service Commission candidates is unsustainable in law.

A division bench comprising Justice H G Ramesh and Justice P S Dinesh Kumar passed the order on a batch of petitions filed by Renukambike R and others, who were unsuccessful aspirants to the posts.

In 2014, the state government had issued a notification withdrawing the recruitment notification for 352 gazetted probationary posts, issued in 2011, following corruption in the selection process. However on March 17, 2017, based on KAT's decision, the government began the administrative process to appoint the 362 gazetted probationary officers.

The government's decision was challenged before the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT) by successful candidates of the 2011 batch. KAT, which heard the petition, directed the government to issue appointment letters for candidates for 362 posts.

The aggrieved candidates approached the high court contending that the KAT ordered the government to go ahead with the appointments despite large-scale irregularities in the selection process.

The petitioners had also questioned the government's stand in the matter, contending it was the government which conducted a CID investigation into the matter and found mass malpractices in the selection process and despite this, it was blindly following the KAT's orders.

The bench in its order observed that some of the candidates were given uniform marks by the KPSC panel members. The bench also observed that the investigation report states that the digital video recorder that had been installed had been changed before the CID investigation to erase all records of malpractice.