High Court of Karnataka (DB: V Kameswar Rao & S Rachaiah JJ., judgment per V Kameswar Rao J.), W.A. No. 197/2024 (S-RES), 27.01.2025 - Puttaswamy v. State of Karnataka & Ors. The appellant, whose appointment as Kannada Teacher pursuant to an institutional recruitment notification published on 05-02-2003 was rejected on 21-05-2003 as ineligible, failed in Revision Petition No. 2/2010 under Sections 131-132, Karnataka Education Act 1983, and his W.P. No. 45368/2013 was dismissed by the learned Single Judge on 18.11.2023 in view of his superannuation and the stale 2003 recruitment. The Division Bench held that pendency of the petition since 2013 was no bar to consideration on merits, and noted that under the Recruitment Rules of 1991 a candidate without Kannada at the graduation level is eligible if he studied Kannada as First or Second Language at SSLC (the appellant's claimed route). However, the teacher appointed after the appellant's disengagement (referred to in the judgment as Respondent No.5) had put in almost 13 years of service, relief was possible only by dislodging that appointment, and the appellant was in any event ineligible as per the advertisement and could not even have applied - his case having been considered erroneously by the selectors. No interference with the Single Judge's ultimate decision; writ appeal dismissed; IA Nos. 1/2024 and 2/2024 disposed of as infructuous.
