High Court imposes cost of ₹8.75 lakh on 35 petitioners

The High Court of Karnataka has imposed an exemplary cost of ₹8.75 lakh on 35 petitioners for stalling the process of recruitment to GroupA posts of veterinary officer that was initiated by the State government on an emergency situation.

The court directed the 35 petitioners, who are the aspirants to the posts, to pay ₹25,000 each as cost to the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority within four weeks.

A Division Bench comprising Justice K. Somashekar and Justice Rajesh Rai K. passed the order while dismissing the petition filed by Sunil G. and 34 others.

The petitioners had questioned an order passed in June 2023 by the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal in rejecting their review application, which they had filed requesting the tribunal to reconsider its February 2023 order of quashing the Karnataka Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Services (Recruitment of Veterinary Officers) (Special) Rules, 2022. The tribunal had said that recruitment had to be done as per the Karnataka Civil Services (Direct Recruitment) (General) Rules, 2021.

The High Court, acting on the petition filed by the 35 petitioners, had in August 2023 passed an interim order and had restrained the authorities of the government from proceeding further with the process of recruitment by conducting a competitive exam as per the 2021 Rules based on the direction given by the tribunal.

However, the Bench, in its final order passed on March 5, 2024, noted that the 35 petitioners did not approach the tribunal when a group of other aspirants questioned the legality of the Special Rules, 2022, but directly knocked on the door of the High Court after the tribunal quashed the Special Rules, 2022.

Even after the High Court redirected these 35 petitioners to the tribunal on their grievances, they had filed the review application before the tribunal instead of filing an application to challenge the selection process as per the law.

Stating that the court could not appreciate the approach and conduct of the petitioners in stalling the recruitment process, the Bench upheld the order passed by the tribunal rejecting the petitioners’ review application.

They had stalled the process of recruitment to posts of veterinary officer