Settling a bone of contention between the directly recruited and promotee district judges, the Supreme Court has held that a promotee would assume district judge position from the date of his promotion but a direct recruit would have to wait till he is actually given the post. The seniority of a promotee district judge would reckon from the date of his promotion, from which he is appointed to work as district judge and in case of a direct recruit, the same would be the date from which he is appointed as a district judge after the completion of the period of probation of two years and not from the initial appointment to work as additional district judge, the apex court said.
Allowing a writ petition filed by Maharashtra State Judicial Service Association, a bench comprising justice G B Pattanaik and justice S N Phukan quashed the administrative decision of Bombay High Court dated May 6, 2000.
The high court had said that district judges, who were appointed by nomination would reckon their seniority in the cadre from the date of appointment, even though they were asked to work as additional district judges and the promotee district judges would reckon their seniority from the date of their promotion.
Striking down the decision terming it as erroneous, justice Pattanaik, writing the judgement for the bench, said the seniority of the direct recruit district judges in the cadre would reckon only from the date, they were appointed to work as district judges.
Bureau Report