Court Holds Legislative Acts Nullifying Judicial Decisions on Pay, Pension, and Kannada Language Increment Violative of Article 14; Affirms Equal Benefits for Non-Grant Period Service
In a landmark judgment dated July 24, 2026, the Karnataka High Court (Division Bench) decisively struck down two key legislative enactments, the Karnataka Private Aided Educational Institutions Employees (Regulation of Pay, Pension and Other Benefits) Act, 2014 (Act No.7 of 2014) and the Karnataka Education Amendment Act, 2014 (Act No.4 of 2015), holding them unconstitutional and violative of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution. The judgment, rendered by Justices S.G. Pandit and Pradeep Singh Yerur, affirms the rights of employees working in private aided educational institutions to reckon their entire service, including the non-grant period, for pay fixation, pension, and other service benefits. It also restores the entitlement to an additional increment for passing the Kannada Language Examination, which the State had sought to deny through the impugned laws.
The appeals arose from writ petitions filed by teaching and non-teaching staff of private aided educational institutions challenging the State’s legislative attempts to nullify earlier judicial pronouncements. These earlier judgments had held that employees are entitled to parity with government employees, including counting service rendered before a post is admitted to grant-in-aid for all financial benefits. The State had enacted the two Acts aiming to override these judicial decisions by excluding non-grant period service from reckoning and denying increments linked to Kannada language proficiency, citing financial constraints and the absence of explicit statutory provisions for such benefits.
The Court meticulously examined the legislative framework governing private aided educational institutions, including the Karnataka Education Act, 1983, the grant-in-aid code, and various recruitment and service condition rules. It found that the State exercises pervasive control over aided institutions from registration, recognition, and appointment of staff to service conditions, underscoring that employees in these institutions perform identical duties and possess the same qualifications as their government counterparts.
The judgment emphasized that legislative enactments cannot simply declare judicial decisions ineffective without removing the legal basis upon which those decisions rest. The Court drew upon authoritative Supreme Court precedents, including recent rulings on manifest arbitrariness under Article 14, to hold that the impugned Acts were a clear attempt at legislative overruling, which violates the separation of powers doctrine and amounts to manifest arbitrariness.
Further, the Court rejected the State’s plea of financial difficulty as a justification for discriminatory treatment, reiterating the constitutional mandate of equal pay for equal work. It noted that the State’s legislative classification lacked an intelligible differentia and rational nexus with the object sought to be achieved, rendering the enactments arbitrary and unconstitutional.
Importantly, the Court clarified that while employees are entitled to reckon the non-grant period service for pay fixation and pensionary benefits notionally, the liability to pay salary for that period remains with the institution’s management, and no arrears of salary are payable by the State for the pre-grant period.
The Court thus upheld the earlier orders of learned Single Judges striking down the Acts and dismissed the State’s writ appeals. This judgment reaffirms the principle that legislative power cannot be used to negate binding judicial decisions without curing the legal defects identified and that employees of private aided institutions are entitled to equal treatment in service benefits.
The ruling has significant implications for private aided educational institution employees across Karnataka, ensuring their service continuity and parity in benefits and reinforcing judicial supremacy and constitutional equality.
Bottom Line :
Karnataka Private Aided Educational Institutions Employees (Regulation of Pay, Pension and Other Benefits) Act and Karnataka Education Amendment Act, 2014 - Legislative enactments cannot nullify judicial decisions by merely declaring them ineffective; such laws must remove the legal basis of the judgment to be valid.
Statutory provision(s):
Karnataka Private Aided Educational Institutions Employees (Regulation of Pay, Pension and Other Benefits) Act, 2014 (Act No.7 of 2014), Karnataka Education Amendment Act, 2014 (Act No.4 of 2015), Karnataka Education Act, 1983 (Section 87, Section 49, Section 145, Section 146), Karnataka Educational Institutions (Recruitment and Terms and Conditions of Service of Employees in Private Aided Primary and Secondary Educational Institutions) Rules, 1999, Karnataka Civil Services (Services and Kannada Language Examination) Rules, 1974
State of Karnataka v. Dr.(Ms) B.K. Naik, (Karnataka)(DB) : Law Finder Doc id # 2954665
