IN THE HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA

DHARWAD BENCH

DATED THIS THE 12^TH DAY OF AUGUST 2021

PRESENT

THE HON’BLE MR. JUSTICE B. VEERAPPA

AND

THE HON’BLE MR.JUSTICE M.G.S. KAMAL

WRIT PETITION NO.102743/2021 (S-KAT)

Between:

Siddayya S/o.Guruvayya Gavimath,

Age 25 years, Occ: Nil,

R/o.: Basapur-591122,

Tq.: Hukkeri, Dist.: Belagavi.

… Petitioner

(By Shri Shriharsh A.Neelopant, Advocate)

And:

The Assistant Secretary,

Karnataka Public Service Commission,

Udyog Soudha, Park House Road,

Vidhan Soudha, Bengaluru-560001.

… Respondent

(By Shri S.S. Beturmath for Shri K.L. Patil, Advocate)

This writ petition is filed under Articles 226 & 227 of

the Constitution of India, praying to issue a writ of

certiorari or order to quash the impugned order dated

20.05.2021, passed in Application No.3870/2020, passed

by the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal, Bengaluru,

as per Annexure-D by allowing the present writ petition.

This writ petition coming on for preliminary

hearing, this day, M.G.S. Kamal, J, made the following:

: 2 :

O R D E R

1.

The present writ petition is filed by the

petitioner being aggrieved by the order dated 20.05.2021

dismissing the Application No.3870/2020, passed by the

Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal at Bengaluru (for

short “the Tribunal”).

2.

The facts leading upto filing of the present

petition briefly stated are that the petitioner had applied

for the post of First Division Assistant with the respondent,

Karnataka Public Service Commission on 03.03.2019 under

Kannada Medium. The petitioner appeared for written

examination on 09.06.2019 with register No.8130046. That

due to inadvertence and oversight, the petitioner has not

marked the medium of instructions in the OMR Answer

Sheet and the said mistake was unintentional and

bonafide. That upon learning about the said mistake, the

petitioner made a representation on 02.12.2019 to the

respondent and requested to condone the said mistake and

to announce the result. That the respondent, Commission

published the list of eligible candidates for the post First

: 3 :

Second Division Assistant on 08.01.2020 and called for

document verification. That in the said list, the name of the

petitioner did not find place only for the reason that the

petitioner had not mentioned the medium of instructions in

the OMR Answer Sheet. That when the petitioner had

tallied the answers marked by him in the OMR Answer

Sheet, he had passed the examination conducted by the

respondent Commission. The respondent Commission

neither issued any response nor announce the result of the

petitioner. Thus, being aggrieved by the inaction on the

part of the respondent Commission, the petitioner had filed

Application No.3870/2020 before the Tribunal.

3.

The respondent Commission filed its statement

of objections to the said application contending that the

process of selection had already completed by issuance of

final select list for the post of First Division Assistant and

Second Division Assistant on 02.06.2020 and that the

applicant has not challenged the said final select list. As

such the respondent had become functus officio having

completed the process of selection and forwarded the list

to the appointing authority. Hence, the application was

: 4 :

liable to be dismissed. It is further contended that the

petitioner had not impleaded the candidates who are likely

to be affected in the matter. It is further submitted that

while issuing the admission ticket itself, the respondent

Commission had issued various instructions to be followed

by the candidates making it clear that failure to abide by

the same their answer sheets would not be evaluated.

That instruction No.5 in the Admission Ticket as contained

in Annexure-A2 both in Kannada and English as

enumerated as below:

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