New Delhi, Aug. 24 -- The Supreme Court has held that subsequent amendments to service rules cannot retrospectively invalidate qualifications acquired by an employee under rules that were in force at the relevant time, particularly when the employee had no control over subsequent changes.

A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Ujjal Bhuyan ruled that amendments to government orders must be interpreted reasonably to avoid undue hardship to employees who had acted in accordance with the prevailing rules.

Background

The case concerned R.J. Gajendra Kumar, who joined the Tamil Nadu Tourism Department as a Junior Assistant in 1983 on compassionate grounds. The rules then allowed employees to pursue higher education through open or distance lea...