Bangalore: As many as 1,797 engineers serving in various state government departments face the threat of losing their jobs as the High Court on Friday upheld the KAT order quashing their appointments. The court held that the postings were in violation of special rules formulated by the state in 2001 to fill backlog posts in various departments. A division bench comprising Justice N Kumar and Justice H S Kempanna quashed the May 25, 2005 government notification absorbing the engineers who till then were working on a contract basis as “null and void”.
The government and contract engineers in the Public Works, Water Resources and Rural Development, Upper Krishna Project and Panchayat Raj departments, had filed a petition seeking to quash a 2009 KAT order. The bench also asked the state to fill up the backlog under 2001 rules in six months and complete the process within a year. The bench said the recruitment was a violation and contrary to provisions of article 14 and 15 of the Indian Constitution and several orders of the Supreme Court. The bench further stated that the order will apply to Upper Krishna Project backlog engineers too.
The government in 2001 had issued a notification to fill backlog engineers posts from the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) but called back the notification and instead made the appointments on contract basis. After this was challenged before the High Court and KAT, the court directed the state to make appointments according to the 2001 rules. However, the state directly appointed all the engineers who were hired on contract basis. The government had adopted a similar procedure in appointing engineers to the Upper Krishna Project.
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