JUDGMENT

Pattanaik, J.-Delay condoned. Leave granted in Special Leave Petitions.

2. These appeals by State of Karnataka as well as Karnataka Rajya Sarkari Prathama Darje Collejugala Arekalika Upanyasakara Sangha, are directed against the judgment of the Karnataka High Court, dismissing the writ petitions, filed against the order of the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal. The tribunal entertained the public interest litigation petition and struck down Rule 2(b)(iii) of the Karnataka State Civil Services (Absorption of Persons working as Part Time Lecturers in the Karnataka Education Department of College Education) Special Rules, 1996 as well as the order dated 15.12.1997, essentially on the ground that the stop-gap lecturers are back door entrants and their regularisation by Rules is contrary to the law laid down by Supreme Court in several cases and it affects the rights of regular entrants. Against the order of the tribunal, the High Court being moved under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution and the writ petitions having been dismissed, the present appeals have been preferred.

3. These cases involve not only a question of law but also a human problem inasmuch as these part ti