‘Betrayal of merit’: Karnataka High Court forms SIT to probe jobs scam

Refusing both CID continuation and a CBI transfer, the bench exercised its jurisdiction under Article 226 to constitute the SIT, stating, “In the peculiar facts obtained in these cases, I do not deem it appropriate to permit investigations at the hands of the CID or the local police. I am equally not persuaded that entrustment of investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation is the only available course.”

Besides DGP Alok Kumar, the SIT will have four other IPS officers: Dr Divya Gopinath, Anup A Shetty, Kushal Chouksey, and Kshama Mishra.

‘Theft of equality of opportunity’

On KPSC’s role, the court said that recruitment malpractices go beyond procedural errors. “When marks are manipulated, answer scripts or OMR sheets are tampered with, selections are purchased, or nepotism and favouritism creep into the process, the fraud is not merely upon an unsuccessful candidate; it is a fraud upon the Constitution itself.”

The bench added that constitutional selection bodies must remain like “Caesar’s wife; above suspicion,” warning that when the fountain of recruitment is polluted, what flows from it cannot inspire public confidence.

It added, “Recruitment to public service must be fiercely protected from tentacles of corruption, manipulation, nepotism and favouritism, lest the constitutional guarantee of equality of opportunity under Articles 14 and 16 be reduced from a living assurance to an empty parchment promise.”

“A deserving aspirant displaced by corruption loses more than a job; he loses faith in the constitutional assurance that public employment is equally accessible to all.”

Highlighting the plight of thousands of aspirants spending their most productive years preparing for examinations, Justice Nagaprasanna said that when a post is sold or engineered, merit is betrayed.

“A recruitment scam in a Public Service Commission in particular is not merely a theft of post; it is a theft of equality of opportunity.”

The court concluded that constituting a time-bound SIT strikes the necessary balance between an investigation that inspires public confidence and one that is swift, focused, and brought to its logical conclusion within a definite timeframe.

Allegations of nepotism

The directions were passed on a batch of writ petitions filed by BJP MLA Basanagouda R Patil Yatnal, the All-Karnataka State Students Association, and several candidates alleging large-scale irregularities in the recruitment of 400 veterinary officers.

The petitioners alleged that the suspended chairman participated in the selection process to help select two of his own daughters under Category 3B reservation. While Vidhana Soudha police initially registered an FIR and transferred it to the CID, petitioners argued the CID probe was “an exercise in optics” and urged a CBI probe, given KPSC’s history of controversies.