The Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear in July, a petition filed by 40 judges, who could not be promoted in the Gujarat district judiciary owing to a stay order passed by the Apex Court on May 12.
The matter was mentioned by Senior Advocate Meenakshi Arora before the Bench of Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice J.B. Pardiwala, which listed it for hearing after summer vacations.
The Senior Counsel said it was a matter of humiliation as the High Court had passed an order on Monday, reverting back the promotees.
The CJI observed that its Coordinate Bench of Justice M.R. Shah and Justice C.T. Ravikumar had passed the stay order on May 12. Justice Pardiwala noted that 40 judges were reverted, while 28 were still in the merit list.
The CJI said that these were all reversible matters and the judges will get their retiral dues.
Arora then mentioned the huge amount of humiliation suffered by the judges and said that at least states in India followed the same method. Even the government of Uttar Pradesh had an identical method in place.
After the CJI agreed to reassign the matter, the Senior Advocate requested for a date after the vacations.
The Apex Court noted that since Justice Shah had retired, a new Bench would be constituted to take up the matter in July.
The Supreme Court Bench of Justice M.R. Shah and Justice C.T. Ravikumar had stayed the promotion of 68 judicial officers as District Judges in Gujarat on May 12, after taking exception to the state government notifying the promotions, while the matter was sub-judice before the Court.
While reading out the operative portion of the judgement, Justice Shah had said that the state government had issued notification during the pendency of plea and after this court issued notice. It further said that the Bench has put a stay on the recommendations sent by the Gujarat High Court and the notification by the Gujarat government on the same.
The Apex Court directed the respective promotees to be sent to their original post which they were holding before promotion.
The Bench added that the present stay order would be applicable to those promotees whose names did not figure within the first 68 candidates in merit list, the bench clarified in the order.
Justice Shah said that the Bench believed that promotions must be made on the principle of merit-cum-seniority and on passing a suitability test. It observed that the recommendations made by the High Court and subsequent government notification were illegal.
The judicial officers to be elevated included Chief Judicial Magistrate of Surat, Harish Hasmukhbhai Varma, who convicted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for criminal defamation and sentenced him to two years simple imprisonment in a defamation case of 2019. The conviction led to Gandhi’s disqualification from the Lok Sabha.