In Brief
The Supreme Court held that employees who joined nationalized banks and government undertakings based on Scheduled Caste/Tribe Caste Certificates issued by Karnataka (under invalid state circulars lacking parliamentary authority) are entitled to retain their positions. Though the State lacked constitutional power to include castes in the SC/ST list—a power exclusively vested in Parliament under Articles 341-342—the employees obtained certificates through lawful process without misrepresentation. Karnataka's 2002 and 2003 protective circulars, ratified by the Ministry of Finance in 2005, reclassified such employees as General Merit candidates while denying future SC/ST benefits. The Court quashed termination notices and set aside the High Court's dismissal of the employees' writ petitions, upholding service protection under the ratified state circulars.
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