In a significant development that brought clarity to a long-running service dispute, the Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the orders of the Karnataka State Administrative Tribunal (KSAT) and the Karnataka High Court regarding seniority fixation in the State Prison Department. The bench of Justice J.K. Maheshwari and Justice Vijay Bishnoi delivered the ruling after a somewhat intense hearing marked by several back-and-forth exchanges between the bench and state counsel.
Background
The dispute stretches back nearly two decades. In the 2004–05 recruitment cycle, the Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) selected candidates for the post of Assistant Superintendent of Prisons under the Gazetted Probationers Group-A and B category. Among them were Suresh K. and R. Latha, who were appointed in 2006. However, another candidate, Mahesh Kumar Jigani, did not find his name in the final selection list and moved the Supreme Court through a writ petition in 2007.
That petition began a chain of orders, twists, and modifications. In 2010, the Court aligned his case with another pending matter involving horizontal reservation errors. Soon after, on an application filed for modification, the Court clarified that Jigani’s case must be considered in line with its earlier ruling in Rajesh Kumar Daria v. Rajasthan Public Service Commission, a landmark judgment explaining how women's horizontal reservation must be applied.
Following this, the State issued an addendum in 2011 appointing him. But when the State later revised the seniority list in 2016—based on the Supreme Court’s own earlier directions—Jigani challenged it before KSAT, which ruled in his favour. The High Court upheld that decision, prompting the present appeals by Suresh K. and R. Latha.
Court’s Observations
During the hearing, the bench appeared unimpressed by the approach adopted by KSAT and the High Court. At one point, Justice Maheshwari remarked, “We had already made it absolutely clear how the Daria judgment must be applied. The tribunals below seem to have stretched it beyond what was intended.”
The Court noted a crucial gap: neither the original writ petition filed by Jigani in 2007, nor the interlocutory application he later filed seeking modification, had been placed on record before the Tribunal or the High Court. According to the bench, this missing context appeared to have contributed to an improper interpretation of the Supreme Court’s earlier orders.
The bench observed, “The directions were clear enough. Once this Court said the Daria judgment governs his case, the implementation had to be strict and not creatively expanded.” The judges pointed out that paragraph 13.2 of the Daria ruling provides a very specific framework: when a candidate is belatedly accommodated due to earlier reservation misapplication, he may get retrospective seniority only for limited purposes such as promotions and pension, and not for monetary benefits.
Decision
Concluding the matter firmly, the Supreme Court set aside the findings of both KSAT and the High Court. The appeals by Suresh K. and R. Latha were allowed in full.
The Court directed the State of Karnataka to follow paragraph 13.2 of the Daria judgment “strictly” while finalizing seniority among the appellants and respondent Jigani. The State must complete this exercise within three months. With that, all pending applications were disposed of, bringing a long, convoluted chapter in Karnataka’s prison-service recruitment story closer to closure.
Case Title: Suresh K. & Another vs. State of Karnataka & Others
Case No.: Civil Appeal (Arising out of SLP (C) Nos. 6350–6351 of 2022)
Case Type: Civil Appeal – Service/Seniority Dispute
Court: Supreme Court of India
Bench: Justice J.K. Maheshwari & Justice Vijay Bishnoi
Decision Date: 28 October 2025