ALL INDIA JUDGES ASSOCIATION AND OTHERS versus UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS

Citation: [2022] 5 S.C.R. 692 · Decided: 19-04-2022 · Supreme Court of India · Bench: L. NAGESWARA RAO · Disposal: Appeal(s) allowed
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SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2022] 5 S.C.R.
[2022] 5 S.C.R. 692
692
ALL INDIA JUDGES ASSOCIATION AND OTHERS
v.
UNION OF INDIA AND OTHERS
(I.A No. 89454 of 2021)
In
(Writ Petition (C) No.1022 of 1989)
APRIL 19, 2022
[L. NAGESWARA RAO, B. R GAVAI, AND
ANIRUDDHA BOSE, JJ.]
Judiciary – Delhi Higher Judicial service – Appointment – In
order dated 21 March 2002 by Supreme Court, it was held that the
ratio of 75% appointment by promotion and 25% by direct
recruitment to the Higher Judicial Service is to be maintained –
Two methods are to be adopted for appointment by promotion, 50%
of the total posts are to be filled by promotion on the basis of principle
of merit-cum-seniority and remaining 25% on the basis of merit
through Limited departmental Competitive Examination (LDCE) for
which qualifying service as a Civil Judge (Senior Division) should
not be less than 5 years – In order dated 20 April 2010 by Supreme
Court, it was held that there is difficulty in finding candidate for
LDCE for the 25% post reserved, hence, it is to be reduced to 10%
– Interlocutory Applications (I.A) were filed by two judicial officers
in the cadre of Delhi judicial services for modifications of orders
dated 21.03.2002 and 20.04.2010 passed by Supreme Court and
seeking permission to participate in LDCE for promotion to Delhi
Higher Judicial service (DHJS) – Another I.A was filed by High
Court of Delhi for reducing the minimum qualifying service to 7
years from 10 years for promotion to the DHJS under 25 % quota
of LDCE – Held: Purpose for providing the channel of promotion
through LDCE was to provide an incentive to the officers to improve
and to compete with each other so as to excel and get quicker
promotion – Nature of work to be performed by the Civil judge
(Junior division) and Civil Judge (Senior division) is the same –
Except for the difference in pay scale, there is no difference with
regard to powers and duties by the said judges – Therefore, 10% of
the cadre strength of District Judges be filled up by LDCE with
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those candidates who have qualified service of 7 years [(5 years as
Civil Judge(Jr. Division) and 2 years as Civil Judge(Sr. Division)
or 10 years as Civil judge(Jr. Division)] in regard to the promotion
on the basis of merit through LDCE.
CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION: I.A. No.89454 of 2021
in Writ Petition (C) no.1022 of 1989.
(UNDER ARTICLE 32 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF INDIA)
With
I.A. Nos.89450 and 88976 of 2021, I.A. No.249 of 2009, I.A.
No.44132 of 2022 in I.A. No.89450 of 2021 in Writ Petition (C) no.1022
of 1989.
K. M. Nataraj, ASG, Vikas Mahajan, Tapesh Kumar Singh, AAGs,
Siddharth Bhatnagar, (Amicus Curiae), Wasim Qadri, A. D. N. Rao, P.
N. Ravindran, Jaideep Gupta, Dr. Manish Singhvi, P. S. Patwalia, Sr.
Advs., Ankit Yadav, Ms. Pracheta Kar, Aditya Sidhra, Nadeem Afroz,
T. A. Khan, Nalin Kohli, B. K. Satija, Sharath Nambiar, Ms. Neela Kedar
Gokhale, Raj Bahadur Yadav, Ms. Kavita Jha, Aditeya Bali, Sachin Patil,
Rahul Chitnis, Aaditya A. Pande, Geo Joseph, Ms. Shwetal Shepal,
Akhilesh Kumar Pandey, Mrs. Amita Gupta, Rakesh Dahiya, A.
Venayagam Balan, Abhijit Sengupta, Pravir Kumar Jain, Ms. A.
Subhashini, M. Shoeb Alam, Shibashish Misra, Karan Bharihoke, Ajay
Kumar, M. A. Chinnasamy, Satish Kumar, T. V. Ratnam, Apoorv Kurup,
Mohit Prasad, Ms. Nidhi Mittal, Ojaswa Pathak, Sibo Sankar Mishra,
Ms. G. Indira, Anandh Kannan N., Gopal Jha, Nishant Verma, Shreyash
Bhardwaj, Ms. Mamta Shrivastava, Ms. Hemantika Wahi, Krishnanand
Pandeya, Sanjay Sharawat, Anil Nag, Romy Chacko, R. N. Keswani,
Ms. Asha Gopalan Nair, Guntur Prabhakar, Mrs. D. Bharathi Reddy,
Dharmendra Kumar Sinha, Uday B. Dube, Kaustubh Dube, Pravir
Choudhary, V. K. Sidharthan, Raj Kumar Mehta, Anil Shrivastav, Gopal
Singh, Rakesh K. Sharma, Abhisth Kumar, Mrs. V. D. Khanna, Sanjay
Jain, Pradeep Misra, Prashant Kumar, G. Prakash, Ashok Kumar Singh,
Ms. Pragya Singh, Ms. Akshay Singh, Shantwanu Singh, P. V. Dinesh,
T. G. Narayanan Nair, Ms. Priya Balakrishnan, Ratan Kumar Choudhuri,
P. Parmeswaran, Radha Shyam Jena, Gopal Balwant Sathe, Mrs.
Revathy Raghavan, P. V. Yogeswaran, T. L. Garg, V. N. Raghupathy, P.
K. Jain, Mrs. Anjani Aiyagari, Sunil Fernandes, Mrs. Bina Gupta, Jitendra
Mohan Sharma, T. Mahipal, Shrish Kumar Misra, Kamal Mohan Gupta,
ALL INDIA JUDGES ASSOCIATION AND OTHERS v. UNION OF
INDIA AND OTHERS
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SUPREME COURT REPORTS
[2022] 5 S.C.R.
Parijat Sinha, Kishan Datta, Ms. A. Sumathi, B. D. Sharma, Haresh
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