Bengaluru: Considering nearly three decades of service put in by the officer, Karnataka High Court has granted limited relief to N Krishnamurthy, a retired Assistant Environment Officer of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB).For the limited purpose of extending pensionary benefits, KSPCB shall take into consideration the petitioner’s past 10 years of service, subject to his satisfying the other applicable requirements under the relevant pension rules. Such reckoning shall be confined only to the determination of pensionary benefits and shall not create any entitlement to back wages, arrears of salary or other service benefits for the earlier period, a division bench comprising Justices DK Singh and H Shanthi Bhushan has specified in its order.Krishnamurthy was initially appointed on a contract basis as an Assistant Engineer in the Board on Nov 21, 1997, and the said post was subsequently re-designated as Assistant Environmental Officer with effect from Dec 10, 1997. Thereafter, he continued in the same post. Relying upon three Govt Orders, under which service weightage was contemplated for contract employees, particularly by awarding 4% marks for each satisfactorily completed year of service, Krishnamurthy submitted an application for the post of Assistant Environment Officer when the same was called for in Dec 2010 and sought the benefit of the said service weightage. He also approached the high court a couple of times, seeking the same relief. On Dec 4, 2017, the high court directed the authorities to consider his case by adding 4% weightage in terms of three Govt Orders issued in 2002, 2009 and 2014. In 2020, a division bench permitted him to submit a fresh representation and on June 7, 2023, the Board passed an order extending the benefit of service weightage.As the same was not implemented, Krishnamurthy again approached the high court, which on April 17, 2026, directed the extension of the service weightage in terms of Board’s June 7, 2023, order. KSPCB had appealed against the said order, arguing that Krishnamurthy does not possess the mandatory educational qualification prescribed under the Cadre and Recruitment Regulations, 1992, as amended, namely, a first-class degree, and therefore was ineligible for appointment to the post of Assistant Environmental Officer.The Board further submitted that the weightage benefits are only applicable to eligible candidates and that Krishnamurthy was already held to be ineligible for the post in an earlier selection process.However, after perusing the materials on record, the division bench noted that though the statutory requirements governing appointment and regularisation cannot ordinarily be overlooked, the extraordinary length of service rendered by Krishnamurthy and the peculiar circumstances of the present case persuade the court to mould the relief in the interests of justice.Considering the fact that Krishnamurthy had retired from service on June 30, 2026, and also the long duration of service rendered by him, the division bench limited its relief to reckoning pensionary benefits.
