SC orders reinstatement of 36 teachers, citing tribunal’s use of ‘hallucinating’ AI

The Supreme Court has ordered the immediate reinstatement of 36 Secondary School Teachers in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, while expressing concern that the provincial Service Tribunal may have relied on “hallucinating” AI to produce fake legal citations.

The ruling, delivered by a bench composed of Chief Justice of Pakistan Yahya Afridi, Justice Muhammad Shafi Siddiqui and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, overturned a consolidated judgment dated July 14, 2025, by the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Service Tribunal (KP-ST), which had upheld the teachers’ termination.

The Directorate of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) K-P had repeatedly sought to terminate the services of the 36 petitioners—most of whom were appointed or regularised around 2012 and 2013—claiming their original appointment orders were bogus.

Procedural flaws and lack of proof

The Supreme Court (SC) determined that the DESE had violated essential due process requirements. The teachers had been reinstated during earlier stages of the protracted litigation, confirming their status as civil servants. Therefore, any penalty for misconduct, such as termination based on alleged fraud, required strict adherence to the K-P Government Servants (Efficiency and Discipline) Rules, 2011 (KPEDR, 2011).

The court found that the inquiry conducted by the directorate was merely a “fact-finding inquiry” and was insufficient to serve as a substitute for a formal departmental inquiry mandated by the KPEDR, 2011.

Crucially, the SC highlighted that the internal inquiry report—on which the directorate based its termination—did not actually conclude that the petitioners’ appointments were illegal or that the teachers themselves had committed fraud. The report, in fact, expressed strong disapproval of the DESE’s conduct, noting that the charges of fake Public Service Commission (KP-PSC) recommendations were “unspecific” and did not show “any lapse or commission of any fraud by appellants”.

Despite this, the KP-ST upheld the termination, resulting in the teachers’ services being brought to an end.

“Hallucinating” AI

The SC noted with “dismay” that the KP-ST, in reaching its conclusion that the appointments were void from the beginning, relied on several legal citations that do not exist.

The judgment stated that searches conducted both by citation and case title confirmed that the cases referenced by the Tribunal were fabricated. The SC suggested that the KP-ST may have relied upon artificial intelligence, which may have “hallucinated” in generating the citations and reiterated a caution previously expressed regarding the use of AI in judicial decision-making.

The Court directed that the petitioners be reinstated in service. While permitting the DESE to conduct a fresh inquiry, it mandated that any such action must be conducted strictly in accordance with the KPEDR, 2011.