Judicial Officers' Inability To Meet Targets During Initial Years Need Not Be Viewed Seriously : Supreme Court Relaxes ACP Norms For Civil Judges( Jr Div)

The inability of a judicial officer to reach the prescribed targets of disposal or not satisfying the quantitative norms during the initial stage of the career need not be viewed seriously.The Supreme Court made this significant observation while accepting the suggestion made by the Second National Judicial Pay Commission for relaxing the norms for grant of 1st Assured Career Progression (ACP) for Civil Judges (Junior Division). At present, a Civil Judge (Jr Div) would be entitled to the first ACP only after completing 5 years of service.A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha and Justice V Ramasubramanian, while considering the All India Judges Association case in relation to the service conditions of judicial officers, observed :"A Civil Judge (Jr Div) is normally in the process of learning the work in his first two years. Assessment of the officer’s performance when the first two years are riddled with trainings and deputations cannot be done in a serious manner. This is especially so when, for the first two years, no real work output is expected out of the judicial officer. Therefore, the inability of the Officer to reach the prescribed targets of disposal or not satisfying the quantitative norms during the initial stage of judicial career need not be viewed seriously, especially having regard to the objective behind the ACP".The bench noted thatt Civil Judge(Jr Division) has only two promotional avenues- Civil Judge (Senior Division) and District Judge. Also, the option of Limited Competitive Examination for promotion to District Judge post is available only to Civil Judge (Senior Division). In this background, the Court said, "Without any promotional avenues, the stagnation in the service causes loss of morale to judicial officers which has a direct bearing on their independence". As regards the relaxed norms which could apply for the 1st ACP, the SNJPC has recommended that the scrutiny for the grant of First ACP will be limited to ascertaining whether there is anything positively adverse such as there is any poor/unsatisfactory performance or there being an adverse report of serious nature leading to the inference that the officer is unfit to have the benefit of the 1st ACP.Accepting this suggestion, the Court directed that the grant of 1st ACP to Civil Judge (Jr Div) be given on the basis of relaxed norms which may be devised by the High Courts, with reference to the suggestions of the Commission. "Grant of 1st ACP to Civil Judge (Jr. Div.) shall not be based on the application of the existing norm of seniority-cum-merit. There shall be relaxed norms for assessing the performance in terms of output. The scrutiny shall be for the limited purpose of ascertaining whether there is anything positively adverse such as consistently poor/unsatisfactory performance or adverse report of serious nature leading to the inference that the Officer is unfit to have the benefit of ACP", this was the suggestion accepted by the Court. The Court said that the High Courts should adopt revised norms in this regard.Delay in grant of ACPThe Commission recommended that if grant of ACP is delayed for every year, one additional increment shall be granted for every year of delay subject to the adjustment with the ACP arrears. The recommendations of the Commission are reasonable, opined the Court. "Delays ought to be avoided on the administrative side which have the effect of stagnating the career of a judicial officer. The suggestions of the Commission will bring about much needed efficiency and perhaps, a standard operating procedure for the grant of ACP in a timely manner. Thus, the recommendation merits acceptance", the Court said in its order.The Court also accepted various other suggestions made by the SNJPC and directed the High Courts to amend their service rules to implement them.Other recommendations which were accepted by the Court.States/High Courts shall take immediate steps to re-designate the officers in conformity with the All India pattern as recommended by FNJPC i.e. those who have not done it so far. The recommendation was to designate posts as Civil Judge (Junior Division), Civil Judge (Senior Division) and District Judge uniformly across the country.The new pay structure shall be as per the 'Pay Accepted Matrix' pattern on the model of VII CPC as against the 'Master Pay Scale' pattern so as to remove the anomalies and to rationalize the pay structure and to ensure due benefit to the judicial officers of all cadres within the framework of established principles.The categorization of the Judicial officers shall be based on their status in the functional hierarchy reflected in horizontal range in Table-I below para 13.1 of the Report.The initial pay for each rank of officer is about Accepted 2.81 times the existing entry pay of each rank except J-6 and J-7, which is in the same proportion of increase as that of the High Court Judge. Accordingly, the first row in the...

Judicial Officers' Inability To Meet Targets During Initial Years Need Not Be Viewed Seriously : Supreme Court Relaxes ACP Norms For Civil Judges( Jr Div)

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"A Civil Judge (Jr Div) is normally in the process of learning the work in his first two years"

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