The Supreme Court ruled that a legislature cannot use a validating law to undo a recruitment cancellation already upheld by constitutional courts, and ordered fresh hiring.

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• On October 29, 2026, the Supreme Court struck down the Karnataka Civil Services (Validation of Selection and Appointment of 2011 Batch Gazetted Probationers) Act, 2022.
• The bench of Justices J B Pardiwala and K Vinod Chandran decided Srinivasa T. v. State of Karnataka, reported as 2026 INSC 1173.
• The 2011 recruitment by the Karnataka Public Service Commission had earlier been cancelled, and the cancellation was upheld by the High Court and the Supreme Court.
• The state enacted the 2022 law to validate the selection and appointments made from that cancelled recruitment.
• The Karnataka Administrative Tribunal and the High Court had rejected challenges to the Act before the appeals reached the Supreme Court.
• The Court held that a legislature may remove the legal defect behind a judgment and validate actions retrospectively, but cannot simply annul a final court ruling.
• It found the Act did not cure the defects identified in the recruitment, which had been set aside over corruption and nepotism affecting the whole selection.
• The Court refused to separate tainted from untainted candidates, since the entire selection stood cancelled and appointments rested only on the invalid Act.
• Of the 362 selected candidates, 46 were found tainted, and 191 were appointed under the Act, 14 of them tainted.
• Appointments made under the unconstitutional Act will end, and Karnataka must recruit afresh for vacant Group A and Group B posts.
• The Court granted a one-time age relaxation to 2011 candidates, including those appointed under the invalidated law.
• The ruling reinforces the separation of powers by marking the limit between legislative validation and judicial review.