Validating legislation cannot legalise appointments void from the start unless it cures the underlying recruitment defect.

A validating statute cannot cure appointments that were void from inception unless it removes the underlying defect or changes the legal basis of invalidity. Here, ad hoc junior teacher appointments were made in breach of the mandatory 1979 recruitment rules, without the required Selection Board process and without Public Service Commission concurrence. The Court held that Section 3(1) could not simply deem those illegal appointments valid, because a deeming clause cannot create lawful consequences without first deeming the foundational facts that would support them. The constitutional challenge to the validating provision therefore failed, and the appointments remained invalid.

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Issues: Whether Section 3(1) of the Orissa Medical Education Service (Appointment of Junior Teachers Validation) Act, 1993 validly regularised ad hoc appointments made in breach of the 1979 Recruitment Rules and the constitutional requirements under Articles 14 and 16.

Analysis: The appointments were made without constituting the Selection Board in the manner required by the 1979 Rules and without concurrence of the Orissa Public Service Commission. The validating legislation did not amend or remove the source of invalidity, nor did it alter the governing recruitment framework. A validating law can sustain past acts only when the legislature has competence and also cures the defect identified in the earlier law or procedure; a mere declaration that illegal appointments shall be treated as valid cannot convert an appointment illegal at its root into a lawful one. A deeming clause cannot deem a legal consequence without first deeming the foundational facts that would make that consequence possible.

Conclusion: Section 3(1) was invalid and could not validate the illegal appointments; the challenge failed against the respondents.

Final Conclusion: The constitutional challenge to the validating statute was rejected and the judgment upholding invalidity was sustained.

Ratio Decidendi: A legislature cannot validate appointments that are illegal at their root unless it removes the underlying defect or changes the legal basis on which the appointments were void; a deeming provision cannot, by itself, legalise an act done in breach of mandatory recruitment rules and constitutional equality requirements.

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