Bhatkal TMC Chief Officer Ayesha Khanum's appointment quashed by High Court; IAS officer Anand K takes temporary charge

Bhatkal 30 April 2018: (Bhatkallys News Bureau) Bhatkal TMC Chief Officer Ayesha Khanum, who took over the charge in January this year has been relieved from her duty along with other selected officers of KPSC 2011 batch by the Karnataka High Court on March 9, citing irregularities in the selection process of the 2011 batch officers. An appeal in the Supreme Court of India by the suspended officers was also rejected by the apex court which upheld the Karnataka High Court's decision and asked HC to consider afresh if the written examinations conducted for selecting 362 gazetted probationers by the KPSC in 2011 batch suffered from any malpractice.

A bench of Justices Adarsh Kumar Goel and R F Nariman noted that this aspect whether the written (main) examinations were also tainted has not been gone into by the high court while it has come out that the interview suffered from malpractices as brought out by the CID report.

The court asked the HC to determine the issue preferably within three months.

The top court also maintained that if there is suspicion of linkage between the evaluators and the candidates, it would be difficult to restore the whole process. However, the court felt that the HC should have segregated the process of viva voce from the rest of the examinations instead of cancelling the entire notification.

Speaking to Bhatkallys.com over a phone call, Bhatkal TMC President Sadique Matta said "The case dates back to 2011 when after the examination and selection process a few of the candidates who were rejected approached court alleging irregularities in the selection process, following which appointments of the selected candidates was put on hold". "However, in 2015 they were cleared for appointments and Aysha's second posting came in Bhatkal in January this year. The plaintiff party moved to HC which once again quashed the appointments of these officers and asked the Muncipal administration to withdraw the appointments and directed the KPSC to re-conduct the selection process" he added. The defendant party however appealed against the decision in Supreme court where the apex court upheld the the HC order, and ordered the selection process to be re-conducted. Bhatkallys.com also contacted the suspended officer Ayesha Khanum over phone call, she said "SC has ordered interviews to be re-conducted, and we are expecting that to happen after the assembly elections, so once we clear it, we will be re-instated into the service and we will receive fresh appointment letters". Meanwhile in Bhatkal, Anand K, an 2016 batch IAS officer has temporarily taken over the charge of Bhatkal TMC Chief Officer from April 12 as part of his training and probation, and will be at the office till 12th May when his probation period will be completed. Anand is scheduled to report in Delhi on 13th May only then, one can expect a new officer to take the charge of TMC Chief Officer in Bhatkal. (Bhatkallys News Bureau/ Ismail Zaorez)