A legislature may change the legal basis of a court decision, but it cannot directly annul a final judgment.
Karnataka’s 2022 validation law tried to protect appointments from a 2011 recruitment that courts had cancelled.
The Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional.
The recruitment had been set aside over corruption and nepotism, according to the court.
Fresh recruitment must now be held.
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.
The state enacted the validation law in 2022, and it was challenged in the Supreme Court, according to the same report.
The Karnataka government must now notify fresh recruitment for the vacant Group A and Group B posts under the existing rules, according to LiveLaw.
Supreme Court of India (file image), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
