SC Stays Promotion of 68 Judicial Officers in Gujarat, Pass Strictures against State Government

Manas Dasgupta

NEW ELHI, May 12: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the promotion of 68 judicial officers in Gujarat and passed strictures against the state government for issuing promotion orders despite knowing that issue was pending before the apex court for adjudication.

A bench of Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar in an interim order stayed the Gujarat High Court recommendation to promote them and the state notification in pursuance of this. The bench noted that the state had issued the notification with the full knowledge that a petition challenging the recommendations of the High Court for promotions was pending before the apex court.

Among the 68 judicial officers was also the Surat Chief Judicial Magistrate Harish Hasmukhbhai Varma, who recently sought to fame by convicting the Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and handing him down imprisonment of two years, the maxim in a defamation case, for which he also lost his Lok Sabha membership. The order issued by the state government had promoted him as the district judge with posting in Rajkot.

The bench ordered the stay agreeing with the petitioners that the promotion of the judicial officers was in violation of the “merit-cum-seniority principle.” Two senior civil judge cadre officers, Ravikumar Maheta and Sachin Prataprai Mehta, had approached the apex court against the selection of the 68 judicial officers to the higher cadre of district judges.

“We are more than satisfied that the impugned list issued by the High Court and the subsequent order issued by the State government granting promotion to district judges are illegal and contrary to the decision of this court. The same are, therefore, not sustainable,” the Bench said. “We stay the implementation of the promotion list. Respective promotees are sent to their original post which they were holding prior to their promotion,” it said.

The top court passed an interim order staying the promotions and directed that the matter be heard by an appropriate bench as Justice Shah is retiring on May 15. Varma, the CJM of Surat, is one of the 68 officers of the district lower judiciary whose promotion has been challenged by Maheta and Mehta, presently working as undersecretary in the legal department of the Gujarat government and the assistant director at the State legal services authority.

The top court, which had issued notices to the State government and the Registrar General of the Gujarat High Court on April 13 on the plea of the two judicial officers, was very critical of the decision and the order passed on April 18 to promote the 68 officers despite knowing the pendency of the case before it.

The SC termed this as the state “overreaching” its orders.  “It is very unfortunate that despite the fact that the respondents, more particularly, the State government, was aware of the present proceedings and the fact that in the present proceedings, this court made the notice returnable on April 28, 2023, the State government has issued the promotion order dated April 18, 2023 i.e. after the receipt of the notice issued by this court in the present proceedings,” the top court said in its order.

The petitioners had contended that while according to the recruitment rules, posts of district judges had to be filled by reserving 65 per cent of the seats on merit-cum-seniority basis and the candidates clearing a suitability test, the merit-cum-seniority principle was given a go-by and the appointments are made on the basis of the seniority-cum-merit.

It added, “We do not appreciate the haste and hurry in which the state has approved and passed the promotion order dated 18.04.2023, when this court was seized with the matter and a detailed order was passed while issuing the notice.”

The bench also noted that day that “the selection was of the year 2022 and therefore there was no extraordinary urgency in passing the promotion order and that too when” it was seized of the matter and added that “we are prima facie of the opinion that it is nothing but overreaching the court’s process and the present proceedings.”

By its April 28 order, the Supreme Court also summoned the secretary of the state government to explain the “extraordinary urgency” shown in the matter in giving promotion and issuing the April 18 notification granting the promotion.

With Justice Shah set to retire on May 15, the matter will now be allotted to a new bench by the Chief Justice of India.

Among those made respondent parties were the Gujarat High Court through its registrar general, the Gujarat government through the secretary of the legal department, and the 68 candidates selected for promotion. Both petitioners had appeared for the written test for promotion to the cadre of district judge but had subsequently not been selected. Ravikumar had secured 135.5 marks out of 200 in the written test and Sachin had secured 148.5 out of 200. Sachin, in fact, had secured the highest marks in the written test.