Days after the Supreme Court struck down a law validating the tainted 2011 Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) recruitment of gazetted probationers, the parliamentary affairs and legislation department has suggested the government cancel the appointments and start fresh recruitment.

On October 29, the court ordered the termination of appointments made under the Karnataka Civil Services (Validation of Selection and Appointment of 2011 Batch Gazetted Probationers) Act 2022, which had overturned the earlier cancellation of the KPSC recruitment by courts and paved the way for the selected candidates to join service.

The recruitment to 362 Group A and B posts was annulled based on findings of rampant corruption and nepotism in the KPSC.

The department opined that a review petition would be unlikely to succeed and that a separate examination for the 2011-batch candidates is “very unlikely” to be permissible, since the judgment places them in an open competitive process.

A restricted exam could also…