Supreme Court upholds promotion policy of Gujarat High Court for district judges

New Delhi, May 17

The Supreme Court on Friday upheld the Gujarat High Court’s policy of providing 65 per cent quota to civil judges (senior division) in promotion to the rank of additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) on merit-cum-seniority basis.

According to the 2005 service rules, 65 per cent of vacancies in the ADSJ cadre in the state are to be filled from the feeder cadre comprising civil judges (senior division) in the state by applying the merit-cum-seniority selection criteria.

A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said deviating from the process of promotion duly followed by the Gujarat high court since 2011 would cause grave prejudice to judicial officers who lost out in the previous selections to Higher Judicial Service despite having scored higher marks in the suitability test.

“We find no fault with the promotion process adopted by the High Court of Gujarat as the same fulfils the twin requirements…

“However, we clarify that for the 65 per cent promotional quota, it is for a particular high court to prescribe or lay down its own minimum standard to judge the suitability of a judicial officer, including the requirement of comparative assessment…,” the bench said.

The top court also vacated the stay imposed by it on the decision of the Gujarat High Court and the subsequent state government notification to promote 68 judicial officers to the post of district judges.

“Interim order granted earlier stands vacated,” it said.

Earlier, the apex court had stayed the promotion of the 68 Gujarat lower judicial officers, including Surat Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Harish Hasmukhbhai Varma, who had convicted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation case.

The top court was hearing a plea of senior civil judge cadre officers Ravikumar Maheta and Sachin Prataprai Mehta challenging the selection of the 68 judicial officers to the higher cadre of district judges.