Karnataka HC Orders Court-Monitored SIT Probe into KPSC Recruitment Irregularities

The Karnataka High Court on Monday directed a court-monitored investigation into alleged large-scale irregularities in recruitment conducted by the Karnataka State Public Service Commission (KPSC), constituting a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by Director-General of Police Alok Kumar.

Justice M. Nagaprasanna, passing the order, set a 100-day deadline for the SIT to complete its investigation and file a final report, and directed it to submit a progress report every 30 days.

The order came on petitions filed by MLA Basanagouda R. Patil Yatnal, the All Karnataka State Students' Association, and Manjunath. The petitioners had sought a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into two matters: the selection of a daughter of suspended KPSC chairperson Shivashankar S. Sahukar to the post of Industrial Extension Officer, and alleged illegalities in the selection of candidates to 400 posts of veterinary officers.

The court held that, given the facts and circumstances, it was not appropriate for the investigation to continue with the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) or the jurisdictional police, but added that it was equally unconvinced that handing the probe to the CBI was the only available option.

IPS officers Divya V. Gopinath, Anoop A. Shetty, Kushal Choksey, and Kshama Mishra were named as other members of the SIT. The State government has been directed to issue a notification declaring the SIT a police station for the purposes of investigation.

The court said the SIT must conduct its investigation independently, impartially, and without being influenced by any observation made in the order on the merits of the allegations. It made clear that the probe would not be confined to the persons presently named, the allegations presently made, or the contours presently perceived, and that if evidence revealed the involvement of any other person, offence, transaction, or act connected to the subject matter, the SIT should follow the evidence wherever it leads, in accordance with law.

The SIT has been given liberty to use forensic, cyber, financial, technical, or other specialised assistance for an effective investigation. It has also been directed to extend cooperation to the Enforcement Directorate, which has taken up a probe under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, and to receive information from the agency.

Tracing what it described as the troubled history of KPSC recruitments since 1998, the court noted that allegations had recurred with disquieting similarity, including nepotism, favouritism, fraud, corruption, tampering of OMR sheets, and claims of answers being written for candidates elsewhere while examinations were under way.

The court observed that history should teach institutions and cannot be permitted to repeat itself recruitment after recruitment, at the cost of thousands of aspirants whose only capital is merit and whose only expectation is fairness. It said that when a post is sold, an OMR sheet tampered with, marks manipulated, or a selection engineered, merit is not merely defeated but betrayed.

Such betrayal, the court said, breeds cynicism among the young and creates a dangerous perception that constitutional avenues themselves are available for purchase, adding that a recruitment scam in a Public Service Commission is not merely a theft of a post but a theft of equality of opportunity.