The Supreme Court has quashed Karnataka’s 2022 law validating the appointments of 362 candidates selected through the Karnataka Public Service Commission’s 2011 recruitment process and directed the state government to notify fresh recruitment for vacant Group A and Group B posts.
A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Vinod Chandran also ordered a one-time age relaxation for candidates who appeared in the 2011 recruitment and were not found to be involved in the tainted process. Those candidates may reappear for the examinations alongside other eligible applicants under the recruitment rules currently in force.
The court said the appointments made through the tainted recruitment would come to an end after it found the Karnataka Civil Services (Validation of Selection and Appointment of 2011 Batch Gazetted Probationers) Act, 2022, unconstitutional. It noted that nearly 15 years had passed since the original recruitment and said it was not practical to resume the selection process from the stage after the preliminary examination, where irregularities had been identified.
Under the arrangement directed by the court, candidates who are selected in the fresh process will receive seniority only from the date of their new appointment. They will not be entitled to back wages or notional appointment benefits for the period before that appointment. The same rule will apply to candidates currently serving if they are selected again.
The court, however, said the period already spent in service by currently working candidates who are selected and reappointed must be counted for calculating pension and retirement benefits. The order also covers the six appellants before the court and petitioners involved in pending proceedings before the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal, subject to the conditions set out in the fresh recruitment process.
The decision places the responsibility for the next step with the Karnataka government, which must notify recruitment for the Group A and Group B vacancies that remain available under the existing rules. The order does not specify a new examination date in the material reported by the Times of India.
While quashing the 2022 validation law, the bench referred to the principle that legislative action cannot simply overturn an individual judicial decision affecting the rights and liabilities of parties. The court cited observations associated with the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal that allowing a state government or legislature to nullify judicial review would threaten the rule of law.
The court clarified that governments may change the law by altering its general legal basis, but cannot use legislation to set aside a specific decision between parties. The Karnataka government’s 2022 legislation was found to have attempted the latter. The implementation of the fresh recruitment notification and the treatment of eligible candidates will now determine how the state administration gives effect to the order.
