The Supreme Court on Friday stayedthe promotion of 68 lower judicial officers in Gujarat and criticised the state government for announcing the promotions while their legality was still under consideration by the court.
One of the judicial officers affected by the ruling is Harish Hasmukhbhai Varma, the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Surat, who had previously convicted Rahul Gandhi, a leader of the Congress party, in a defamation case.
SC bench stays Gujarat HC proposal, state govt notification
The proposal put forth by the Gujarat High Court for the promotion of judicial officers, as well as the notification issued by the government to enforce the recommendation, were both stayed by a bench consisting of Justices MR Shah and CT Ravikumar.
"The promotions must be made on principle of merit-cum-seniority and on passing a suitability test. Recommendations by high court and subsequent government notification are illegal," Justice MR shah said in his order.
HC list, stat govt order illegal and contrary to SC's decision: Bench
"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 went on to add.
Two senior civil judges had filed a petition contesting the promotion of certain judicial officers to district judges under the 65% quota rule.
According to the petition, the appointment of district judges should have followed the recruitment rules of maintaining a 65% reservation based on merit-cum-seniority, along with a suitability test. However, the appointments were made on the basis of seniority-cum-merit, disregarding the merit-cum-seniority principle.
They had also requested that the high court be instructed to create a new merit list based on the merit-cum-seniority principle.
SC slammed govt for going ahead with promotions despite case being subjudice
After issuing notices to the state government and the Registrar General of the Gujarat High Court on April 13 in response to the plea of the two judicial officers, the top court expressed strong disapproval of the decision to promote the 68 officers on April 18, despite being aware of the ongoing case.
"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 SC had said in its order dated April 28.
