Supreme Court To Pronounce Judgment On Judicial Officers' Eligibility For Direct Appointment As District Judges Tomorrow

Update - judgment delivered on October 9 - Judicial Officers With 7 Years Combined Experience On Date Of Application Eligible For Direct Recruitment As District Judges : Supreme CourtThe Supreme Court will tomorrow(October 9) pronounce its decision on the issue of whether a judicial officer, who has already completed 7 years in the Bar, is entitled to be appointed as a District Judge against the Bar vacancy.A Constitution Bench comprising five judges - Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, Justices MM Sundresh, Aravind Kumar, SC Sharma and K Vinod Chandran - had reserved the Judgment on September 25 after a 3-day hearing.The bench has been constituted after the 3-judge bench of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice NV Anjaria passed an order on August 12, referring the matter to a larger bench.The matter involved the interpretation of Article 233(2) of the Constitution.The four main issues considered by the bench are : (i) Whether a judicial officer who has already completed seven years in Bar being recruited for subordinate judicial services would be entitled for appointment as Additional District Judge against the Bar vacancy?(ii) Whether the eligibility for appointment as a District Judge is to be seen only at the time of appointment or at the time of application or both?(iii). Whether there is any eligibility prescribed for a person already in the judicial service of the Union or State under Article 233(2) of the Constitution of India for being appointed as District Judge?(iv). Whether a person who has been Civil Judge for a period of seven years or has been an Advocate and Civil Judge for a combined period of seven years or more than seven years would be eligible for appointment as District Judge under Article 233 of the Constitution of India?In the 3-day-long hearing, the petitioners mainly contended that the decision in Dheeraj Mor v. Hon'ble High Court of Delhi required reconsideration. In Dheeraj Mor(3-judge bench), the Court held that civil judges are not eligible to seek direct recruitment to the post of District Judges in the bar quota.The petitioners argued that it was incorrect to hold that the phrase 'A person not already in the service of the Union or of the State shall only be eligible to be appointed a district judge' in Article 233(2) means that those in service as civil judge would be excluded from being appointed as a district judge. The petitioners also emphasised that the 7-year practice rule for advocates under Art. 233(2) cannot be interpreted to mean 7 continuous years of practice as held in the Dheeraj Mor case.The petitioners were represented by Sr Advocates Jayant Bhushan, Arvind Datar, PS Patwalia, Gopal Sankarnarayanan, V Giri, Vibha Makhija, Jaideep Gupta, Seshadiri Naidu, Manish Singhvi and Maneka Guruswamy. The respondents, on the other hand, argued that Article 233(2) excluded candidates in service from the opportunity of direct recruitment as it only specifies the qualification for practising advocates. It was stressed that the view that Article 233(2) was limited to advocates held the ground for over 60 years and is governed by the principle of stare decisis. It was further submitted that the 7-year practice rule has to read to mean 7 years of continuous practice by the advocates as on the date of application. The Respondents were represented by Sr Advocates CU Singh, Nidhesh Gupta, Vijay Hansaria, Rajiv Shakder, and othersWhat Led To The Reference? The Court passed the reference order in an appeal filed against a Kerala High Court judgment which set aside the appointment of a District Judge on the ground that, at the time of issuing the order of appointment, he was not a practising Advocate and was in judicial service, functioning as a Munsiff.In 2021, the Supreme Court had stayed the High Court's judgment.The appellant Rejanish KV was a practising lawyer having 7 years' experience in the Bar when he submitted his application for the post of District Judge. He was also an applicant for selection to the post of Munsiff/Magistrate and while the selection process of District Judge was underway, he was appointed as a Munsiff-Magistrate on 28/12/2017. After he got appointment order to the post of District Judge, he was relieved from the Subordinate Judiciary on 21/8/2019 and he took charge as District Judge, Thiruvananthapuram on 24/8/2019. Another candidate [K. Deepa] filed a writ petition before the High Court challenging his appointment contending that he was not eligible to be appointed as District Judge since at the relevant time when he was appointed as a District Judge, he was not a practising Advocate and was in judicial service, functioning as a Munsiff.This writ petition was allowed by the Single Bench relying on a Supreme Court judgment in Dheeraj Mor v. High Court of Delhi in which it was held that an advocate who applies for the post of District Judge by way of direct recruitment should continue to be a practising Advocate until the ...

Supreme Court To Pronounce Judgment On Judicial Officers' Eligibility For Direct Appointment As District Judges Tomorrow

Anmol Kaur Bawa

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