Supreme Court strikes down Karnataka law validating tainted 2011 recruitment, orders fresh hiring

Moulding the relief, the bench directed the state government to notify the recruitment for the vacant posts. (File Photo)

he Supreme Court on Thursday struck down a Karnataka law that sought to validate the 2011 gazetted probationers’ recruitment by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC), which courts had earlier found vitiated by corruption. It also ordered that the appointments made under the law be terminated.

Holding that the legislature cannot override judicial decisions that had already upheld the cancellation of the selection process, a bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran allowed appeals challenging the Karnataka Civil Services (Validation of Selection and Appointment of 2011 Batch Gazetted Probationers) Act, 2022, under which appointments had been made despite earlier findings of widespread corruption and nepotism in the recruitment process.

“We have no doubt in our minds that the subject legislation is unconstitutional. We set aside the same, as also the judgments impugned herein, both in the PIL and the writ petition filed against the order of the KAT (Karnataka Administrative Tribunal). The PIL, though not agitated by the individual who filed it, would stand allowed, transposing the appellants herein as the petitioners,” the judgment said.

The court also directed the Karnataka government to initiate fresh recruitment against the vacancies that remain in Group A and Group B services under the existing recruitment rules. It also ordered a one-time age relaxation for specified categories of candidates, including the six appellants, eligible candidates from the earlier selection and petitioners in pending proceedings before the KAT.

“Having found the Act of 2022 unconstitutional, we cannot but observe that the appointments made pursuant to the tainted recruitment will also come to an end. The passage of a decade and a half from the initial recruitment restrains us from resuming the entire selection from the stage at which it was found tainted; i.e., after the preliminary examination,” it said.

Moulding the relief, the bench directed the state government to notify the recruitment for the vacant posts.