Karnataka’s validation law struck down: What the court held, what it ordered, what is unclear

What the court held: a legislature cannot directly annul a final judgment, and the 2011 selection was vitiated by corruption and nepotism.

What it ordered: fresh recruitment for the vacant Group A and Group B posts under the existing rules.

What it gave: a one-time age relaxation to 2011 candidates, including those not found tainted.

What differs: the years of the cancellation and the High Court ruling are given differently in different reports.

What is not reported: any reaction from the state government or the candidates.

LiveLaw dates the ruling Thursday, October 29, and the Daily Pioneer’s article does not state the exact date.

A bench of Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice K Vinod Chandran heard the case, and Justice Chandran wrote the judgment, according to LiveLaw.

The court held that a state legislature may change the legal basis of a court decision but cannot directly annul a final judgment through a later law, according to LiveLaw.

LiveLaw quotes the court as saying that such a law cannot directly annul the final judgment by subsequent legislation.

The court held that the 2011 recruitment was set aside because corruption and nepotism vitiated the entire selection, and not because of a mere procedural defect, according to the reports.

The court found no equitable basis to protect the selected candidates, whose appointments depended on the 2022 Act, according to LiveLaw.

The Karnataka Public Service Commission notified the recruitment in November 2011 to fill 362 gazetted probationer posts, according to the Daily Pioneer.

A Criminal Investigation Department inquiry followed complaints of irregularities, according to the same report.

The state cancelled the recruitment in 2014, and the Karnataka High Court upheld the cancellation in 2018, according to the Daily Pioneer, while another report gives different years, so the dates differ between reports.

The Supreme Court later declined to interfere with the High Court’s decision, according to the Daily Pioneer.

Supreme Court of India (file image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0