In a case that has been in the legal process for 35 long years, the High Court of Karnataka has upheld the action of the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) in dismissing a driver, after he served for 17 years, for submitting a forged school certificate at the time of applying for the job way back in 1988.
Marulappa, who is now aged 61 years, was appointed to the post of a driver in September 1988.
The BMTC, in 1990, initiated an enquiry against him for allegedly submitting a forged school transfer certificate to claim that he had studied upto class 9, even though he had studied only till class 1. The minimum qualification to apply for the post of driver then was completion of schooling till class 4.
A decade-long enquiry
However, the enquiry spanned over a decade, and was completed only in 2002, and he was terminated from the service in 2005. He raised a dispute before a labour court, which took 11 years to adjudicate the issue, and passed an award in 2016 by ordering his reinstatement without back-wages on the ground that he had served for a long time in the BMTC.
