The Karnataka High Court has directed the state transport department to issue appointment orders within two months to eligible candidates included in the revised final selection list for 150 Motor Vehicle Inspector posts, ruling that applicants cannot be rejected for lacking experience repairing petrol engines in heavy goods and heavy passenger vehicles that are no longer in operation in India.
A division bench led by Justice R Devadas dismissed the transport department’s petition challenging an order of the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT) and allowed several petitions filed by candidates who had not received appointment orders.
The court held that requiring experience with petrol engines in heavy goods vehicles and heavy passenger vehicles was unreasonable when such vehicles have not been operating in India for several decades, according to the report. The bench also noted that the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation, Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation and other transport corporations had accepted experience certificates relating to petrol-engine vehicles during earlier processes.
The ruling concerns recruitment initiated by the Karnataka Public Service Commission in February 2016 to fill 150 vacant Motor Vehicle Inspector posts in the transport department. The KPSC published a revised final selection list on October 26, 2023, after which the service-experience certificates of selected candidates were sent to the respective deputy commissioners for verification.
Candidates who did not receive appointment orders subsequently approached the KAT seeking directions for their appointments. The tribunal held that candidates could meet the experience requirement by combining service gained at two separate vehicle repair workshops, provided the combined experience amounted to one year. The state government challenged that decision before the High Court.
A separate set of candidates also approached the High Court after their applications were rejected on the basis of reports from deputy commissioners stating that their service-experience certificates were not genuine. The court’s order covers the eligible candidates in the revised final selection list, while the supplied report does not specify the outcome of every individual certificate-verification dispute.
The judgment places the next administrative responsibility on the transport department. Appointment orders for candidates found eligible under the revised selection list are to be issued within two months, bringing a recruitment process that began in 2016 to its next formal stage.
