The Supreme Court on Thursday (October 29) struck down a 2022 Karnataka law that had brought back the much-disputed 2011 recruitment of gazetted probationers, holding that a state legislature cannot simply wipe out court judgments by passing a validating Act. The ruling brings an end to appointments made through a selection that investigators had found riddled with corruption and nepotism.
A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran declared the Karnataka Civil Services (Validation of Selection and Appointment of 2011 Batch Gazetted Probationers) Act, 2022, unconstitutional in the case Srinivasa T v State of Karnataka and Others.
Background: the 2011 KPSC recruitment
The story goes back to a notification issued on November 3, 2011, by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) to fill 362 Group A and Group B posts - the batch of gazetted probationers that includes Karnataka Administrative Service (KAS) officers. Allegations of irregularities soon surfaced, and in 2014 the state handed the matter to the CID.
According to the Supreme Court's account of the record, the CID found manipulation, corruption and nepotism involving the commission. Irregularities included communication between candidates and the commission, identical interview marks awarded without individual assessment, and the replacement of a digital video recorder in a way that destroyed evidence. The state then cancelled the recruitment.
The Karnataka Administrative Tribunal (KAT) initially set aside the cancellation, but the Karnataka High Court restored it. When the state later tried to resume the process from the written exam stage, the High Court found serious irregularities in the evaluation of answer scripts as well.
The 2022 Act and how it reached the Supreme Court
In March 2022, the state legislature passed the validation law to revive the selection. Around 191 candidates were appointed under it, including 14 whom the CID had specifically found to be tainted. A PIL challenging the Act was dismissed by the High Court, and unsuccessful candidates who later sought relief were turned away by the KAT and the High Court, which relied on that dismissal. Those candidates then moved the Supreme Court.
| Case | Srinivasa T v State of Karnataka and Others |
| Bench | Justices JB Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran |
| Verdict date | October 29, 2026 |
| Law struck down | Karnataka Civil Services (Validation of Selection and Appointment of 2011 Batch Gazetted Probationers) Act, 2022 |
| Original posts | 362 Group A and B posts (KPSC notification of Nov 3, 2011) |
| Appointed under 2022 Act | About 191, including 14 found tainted by CID |
| Next step | State to notify current Group A and B vacancies under present rules |
What the court held
The bench drew a clear line between two kinds of laws. A legislature may pass a retrospective law that removes the legal basis on which a judgment rested. What it cannot do is directly annul a final judgment, and the court said the 2022 Act fell squarely in the second category. "We have no doubt in our minds that the subject legislation is unconstitutional," the bench said.
Interestingly, senior advocate Kapil Sibal, appearing for the Karnataka government, conceded that the law could not be defended. Senior counsel for the selected candidates argued that their appointments should be protected on equitable grounds, since many had already been in service for years. The court rejected this, observing that "there could be no equity, insofar as the selected candidates are concerned," because the recruitment was tainted by corruption rather than a mere procedural slip.
The judges also expressed "a little bit of surprise and a lot more alarm" at how the High Court had handled the PIL and the later writ petition, calling the treatment cursory. They added that a public interest litigant cannot withdraw a case as a matter of right without the court's permission. In one of the more striking lines of the verdict, the court remarked: "When the winds of politics change direction, it is the common man, who gets caught in the storm."
What it means for candidates and for Karnataka
For the officers appointed under the 2022 law, the judgment means their appointments under the tainted selection come to an end. The court declined to order a fresh round under the old 2011 rules. Instead, Karnataka has been asked to notify the existing Group A and B vacancies under the rules currently in force.
Candidates who were not tainted, along with those who had approached the court or the tribunal, have been given age relaxation so they can compete in the new recruitment. That offers partial relief to aspirants who, after nearly 15 years, saw their careers stuck in litigation.
The verdict is also a setback for the state, which had used legislation to settle a recruitment dispute that courts had already ruled on. It is likely to be cited in future cases where governments try to protect appointments made through discredited selection processes.
What happens next
The Karnataka government will now have to work out how to implement the order, including the status of officers currently serving and the timeline for notifying fresh vacancies through the KPSC. Aspirants should watch for an official KPSC notification for Group A and B posts in the coming months.
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