The Karnataka High Court on Wednesday stayed the two orders passed by the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal (KSAT), which had directed its registry to call for entire records from the Registrar-General of the High Court related to two writ petitions filed in 2012 on recruitment of Group A and B Gazetted Probationers of the 1998 batch.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Hemant Chandangoudar passed the order on a petition suo motu initiated by the court on the two directions issued in December 2019 and January 2020 by the KSAT.
The Bench observed that the High Court has judicial superintendence over KSAT as per law laid down by the apex court and hence, it is required to examine the propriety and legality of the orders passed by KSAT calling records from the High Court.
However, the Bench said that the KSAT Registrar was free to get a direction from the tribunal to request for providing photocopies of the documents related to writ petitions from the HC’s Registrar-General. And if such a request was made, the Registrar-General would have to furnish it, the Bench said.
Though the court has not issued notice to KSAT at the present, it gave liberty to the State to seek modification of the tribunal’s two orders calling for records from the HC. A Bench of KSAT comprising its Chairman K. Bhakthavatsala and G. Latha Krishna Rao (Administrative Member) had passed the orders calling for the records from the court and based on it the KSAT Registrar had written to the Registrar-General of High Court.