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Bengaluru: The Supreme Court has struck down the Karnataka Civil Services (Validation of Selection and Appointment of 2011 Batch Gazetted Probationers) Act, 2022, ruling that the law could not undo court decisions that had upheld cancellation of the 2011 KPSC recruitment by the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC). The court said appointments made under the unconstitutional Act will come to an end and directed Karnataka to recruit afresh for Group A and Group B posts that remain vacant under the rules now in force.
A Bench of Justices J. B. Pardiwala and K. Vinod Chandran delivered the ruling on October 29 in Srinivasa T. and Others v. State of Karnataka and Others (2026 INSC 1173), arising from appeals connected to SLP (Civil) Nos. 21195–21196 of 2023. The judgment allows the appeals and sets aside the 2022 Act and the challenged High Court judgments.
The recruitment notification, issued on November 3, 2011, covered 362 Group A and B posts. The judgment records that 138,307 candidates applied, 91,667 took the preliminary examination, 6,211 qualified for the main examination and 1,090 were called for interviews. After complaints of irregularities, the State withheld the final select list in 2013 and referred the matter to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
The CID inquiry found manipulation, corruption and nepotism involving KPSC officials, and the recruitment was cancelled. The High Court upheld the cancellation in 2014, and the Supreme Court later declined to interfere. In its review of the earlier record, the present judgment notes that at least 566 candidates received identical interview marks and that the KPSC building’s digital video recorder had been replaced. It says the selection as a whole had been compromised, so candidates could not be separated into “tainted” and “untainted” groups after the cancellation.
Why the 2022 law was struck down
The State enacted the 2022 law to validate appointments from the cancelled recruitment. The Supreme Court held that a legislature may change the legal basis of a judgment, but cannot simply annul a final decision of a constitutional court. It found that the earlier court decisions had upheld the cancellation and that the Act did not remove the defects identified in the recruitment process.
The judgment records that 362 candidates had been selected, 46 were described as tainted, and 191 appointments were made under the 2022 law, including 14 involving candidates described as tainted. These figures do not mean that all 362 selected candidates were appointed. The court rejected the plea to preserve appointments by separating candidates on the basis of the CID findings, saying the entire selection had already been cancelled.
Fresh recruitment and one-time age relaxation
The State must notify recruitment for the vacant Group A and B posts under the current rules. A one-time age relaxation will be available to the six appellants, petitioners in proceedings pending before the Karnataka Administrative Tribunal, and appointed candidates who were not found tainted, so they may compete with other candidates currently eligible for the posts.
Anyone selected in the fresh recruitment will receive seniority only from the date of the new appointment and no back wages or notional appointment for the earlier period. For people currently in service who are selected again, their earlier service will count only towards pension and retirement benefits. The court also rejected applications seeking impleadment and intervention.
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