Appoint Administrative Member to KAT, K'taka Govt told

Bangalore, Mar 15 (UNI) The Karnataka High Court today directed the State Government to fill the vacant post of Administrative Member to the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal within three months.

Disposing of a writ petition filed by Ms K Deepashree of Bangalore, Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph and Mr Justice B S Patil, however, regretted that the prayer of the petitioner with regard to disposing of her application out of turn could not be granted.

The petitioner submitted that she had filed an application before the Tribunal, challenging the amended Rule under the Karnataka Civil Services Rules (General Recruitment) for Government selection process. Under the impugned rules, the maximum marks prescribed for written exam ought not to exceed five per cent of the maximum marks prescribed for the examination and even under the KCS (Direct Recrutiment of Competitive and Selection(General Recruitment) Rules which had come into force with effect from August 14, 2006, the maximum marks for the interview would be 15.

The petitioner prayed for a direction to earmark a maximum of 90 for the vivavoce test as per the amendment rules. She contended that the respondent had adopted an illegal and arbitrary method to favour mediocre candidates. The name of the petitioner, who claimed to be a rank holder throughout her educational career, was not seen in the selected list with the sole reason being that she had not presumably secured the required marks in the interview conducted for 200 marks that the respondent KPSC had arbitrarily fixed for filling up vacancies in the Group-A and B Gazettted probationers cadre in the service of the State. Due to proliferating number of cases and for want of required number of members to constitute the reqired benches, the KAT had not taken up her case inspite of her written request.

Referring to a communication from the Government placed before it by the Government advocate, which informed that the Tribunal Chairman had a proposal for setting up an additional Bench (third bench), the court directed the Government to appoint the administrative member.

UNI