Bengaluru: The Karnataka High Court on Friday issued notices to state government and Karnataka Examination Authority following a batch of petitions filed by a group of job aspirants, who are orphans sheltered at an NGO in Mysuru since childhood.
The petitioners were provided food, clothing, shelter and education by the NGO ‘Odanadi Seva Samsthe’. They had taken direct exam and got admitted to 8th standard and the name of the NGO was mentioned as their father and mother of the petitioners and the caste column was left blank.
Later they completed their graduation and joined the Master’s Degree at Mysuru University. Meanwhile the University had invited applications for the post of PDO and GPS Grade-I from the eligible candidates.
The petitioners had applied online for the post. However their applications were not accepted as it was mandatory to mention caste, even for General Merit candidates.
The students then approached the High Court and after hearing their case, the court issued notices to the respondents and further permitted the petitioners to submit their online application showing their caste as ‘nil’ and as belonging to General Merit category.
In case, the online application is not accepted, the respondents were directed to accept the application to be filed by the petitioners in person at the office of the respondent authority, the court ordered, assign that the respondents are directed to consider the application to be submitted by the petitioners by hand on Friday for the purpose of scrutiny.
