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It was furthermore submitted that the promotions were given to the appellants when the law laid down by the Kerala High Court in Daniel (supra) and Ravindran (supra) were in force and, thus, as the law was declared by the Full Bench only in the year 2005, the same was not applicable in their case.

Mr. Uday U. Lalit, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the respondents, would, however, support the judgment.

For the views we propose to take, it is not necessary for us to consider all the decisions relied upon by Mr. Rajan. The legal position as regards the applicability of doctrine of prospective overruling is no longer res integra. This Court in exercise of its jurisdiction under Article 32 or Article 142 of the Constitution of India may declare a law to have a prospective effect. The Division Bench of the High Court may be correct in opining that having regard to the decision of this Court in L.C. Golak Nath and Others v. State of Punjab and Another [AIR 1967 SC 1643) the power of overruling is vested only in this Court and that too in constitutional matters, but the High Courts in exercise of their jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, even without applying the doctrine of prospective overruling, indisputably may grant a limited relief in exercise of their equity jurisdiction.

9. Prospective overruling takes several different forms. In its simplest form prospective overruling involves a court giving a ruling of the character sought by the bank in the present case. Overruling of this simple or 'pure' type has the effect that the court ruling has an exclusively prospective effect. The ruling applies only to transactions or happenings occurring after the date of the court decision. All transactions entered into, or events occurring, before that date continue to be governed by the law as it was conceived to be before the court gave its ruling.

[See also Lord Rodger of Earsferry - 'A Time for Everything under the Law : Some Reflections on Retrospectivity' [(2005) 121 LQR 55, 77].

Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead speaking for the House of Lords clearly held that the power to apply prospective overruling is available to the House of Lords also.

In Queen (on the Application of Ernest Leslie Wright) v. Secretary of State for the Home Department [(2006) EWCA Civ. 67], it was observed :

"42. The English law in this respect is developing rapidly. Prospective rulings seemed anathema to Lord Wilberforce in Launchbury v Morgans [1973] AC 127, 137 and Lord Goff of Chieveley in Kleinwort Benson Ltd v Lincoln City Council [1999] 2 AC 349, 379. By the time of Regina v Governor of Brockhill Prison, ex p Evans (No. 2) [2001] 2 AC 19, Lord Slynn at p. 26 H considered that the effect of judicial rulings being prospective might in some situations be "desirable and in no way unjust", though Lord Steyn at p. 28 B thought the point was a "novel one". With some perspicacity Lord Hope of Craighead foresaw at p. 36 that "the issue of retrospectivity is likely to assume an added importance when the Human Rights Act 1998 is brought into force". Lord Hobhouse at p.48 F would have none of it. The latest in this line of authority seems to be In re Spectrum Plus Ltd (in liquidation) [2005] UKHL 41, [2005] 3 WLR 58 where the danger was acknowledged that prospective overruling "would amount to judicial usurpation of the legislative function", per Lord Nicholls at para. 28 but nonetheless he noted that, especially in the human rights field, " 'Never say never' was a wise judicial precept", (para. 42).
43. The question has attracted interest in the academic journals. See Arden L.J., "Prospective Overruling", (2004) LQR 7; Lord Rodger of Earlsferry, "A Time for Everything under The Law; Some Reflections on Retrospectivity", (2005) 121 LQR 57 and Duncan Sheehan and T. T. Arvind, "Prospective Overruling and Fixed/Floating Charge Debate", (2006) 122 LQR 20."

In service matters, this Court on a number of occasions have passed orders on equitable consideration. But the same would not mean that whenever a law is declared, it will have an effect only because it has taken a different view from the earlier one. In those cases it is categorically stated that it would have prospective operation.