"Never Interfered 15 Mins Prior To Swearing-In" SC Dismisses Plea By District Judge Challenging Appointment Of Additional Judges As Violative Of "Seniority Rule"

Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a plea seeking quashing of Presidential Order of dated April 30 which appointed a "junior" as Additional Judge of the Karnataka High Court.

The hearing was held at 10 AM, just 30 minutes before the judges were sworn in as the additional judge of the Karnataka High Court along with four other judicial officers.

A bench of Justices Deepak Gupta & Aniruddha Bose observed that such a plea could not be entertained, especially at the "11th hour". 

"Court has not interefered with a swearing-in ceremony in history, with just 15 minutes left for it" - Supreme Court

The notification released by Law Ministry on April 30 has appointed judicial officers Shivashankar Amarannavar, Smt M Ganeshaiah Uma, Vedavyasachar Srishananda, Hanchate Sanjeev Kumar, and Padmaraj Nemachandra Desai as additional judges of the Karnataka High Court, for a period of two years.

In a writ petition filed on Saturday, Sri Master RKGMM Mahaswamiji had contended that  the order passed to elevate Padmaraj Nemachandra Desai from district judiciary as additional judge of the HC for a period of two years, was "arbitrary, unconstitutional, unlawful and in total disregard of existing binding executive instructions"

"The Petitioner is aggrieved by the impugned Full Court adverse decision / resolution dated 06.11.2019 of the Hon'ble High Court of Karnataka wherein his request dated 25.04.20 19 for grant of functional promotion as District Judge (Super time scale) and for restoration of original seniority were rejected and the same is intimated to the Petitioner by the communication letter dated 13.11.2019" - the plea stated.

Petitioner contended that his name was ignored and was not taken into consideration for promotion or elevation, along with his batch mates. 

Petition was filed by Advocate Sanjay M Nuli.