Bengaluru: After quashing the law validating the appointments of 362 candidates by Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC), Supreme Court on Thursday directed the state govt to notify the recruitment for vacant posts and give age relaxation for candidates who had appeared in 2011 and were not found tainted, if they wish to face the exams again.
The bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and Vinod Chandran observed: “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. Interestingly, Supreme Court, while quashing the 2022 law – the Karnataka Civil Services (Validation of Selection and Appointment of 2011 Batch Gazetted Probationers) Act – referred to the lines of Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal , saying states acting against judicial review was an indication of death of law. The bench, however, also observed that it is open to change the law in general by changing the very basis, but it is not open to set aside an individual decision between parties, affecting their rights and liabilities; “which is the exercise attempted by the state in enacting the Act of 2022.
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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 stage of the preliminary examination. ” “Moulding the relief at this stage, we would only direct the state govt to notify the recruitment for the vacant posts, remaining as of now in the group ‘A’ and ‘B’ services as per the presently existing recruitment rules in which the appointed candidates who were not found tainted and the six appellants herein, as also the petitioners in the pending proceedings before KAT, be granted age relaxation to appear in the recruitment process as a one-time opportunity, along with other candidates now eligible,” the bench said. Insofar as the persons who are continuing now, if selected, then their seniority shall also be only from the date of their fresh appointment as per the selection and recruitment directed by us. “The tribunal cautioned that if the exercise of power of judicial review can be set at nought by the state govt or the state legislature by overriding the decision given against it, then it would sound the death knell of rule of law. Download the TOI App.
“If selected, we make it clear that their seniority shall be only from the date of appointment and they shall not be entitled to any back wages or notional appointment from an earlier point of time. However, if the persons working now gets selected and appointed, the period they have been in service pursuant to their earlier appointment shall be reckoned for computation of their pension and retirement benefits,” the order read.