Supreme Court Upholds Gujarat HC's Merit-Cum-Seniority Procedure For District Judge Promotions

The Supreme Court has affirmed the Gujarat High Court's process for promoting Senior Civil Judges to the cadre of District Judges under the 65% quota based on merit-cum-seniority. In an impactful verdict today, the supreme court acknowledged the approach which is currently assessing the "merit-cum-seniority" principle, as established by the Gujarat High Court.  

The matter was heard by a bench consisting of the Chief Justice of India, Justice Manoj Mishra, and Justice Pardiwala, which was filed by two judges who were unsuccessful in their bid for promotion to the position of District Judge via the 65% promotion quota. 

Justice Pardiwala's judgment highlighted that the High Court has the authority to establish the procedure in accordance with the All India Judges Association- II judgment and the procedure implemented by the High Court as per Rule 5 of The Gujarat State Judicial Service Rules, 2011.

The petitioners were represented by Senior Advocates Mr R Basant and Mr P S Patwalia, who contended that the high court is applying the principle of seniority twice and once the merit list is created based on the suitability test, it should be made the select list. 

The crux of the issue was whether the High Court applied the test of seniority at two separate stages of the selection process, one at the stage of preparing the zone of consideration and the other at the stage of preparing the final list.

The Gujarat High Court, represented by Senior Advocate V Giri and assisted by Vishakha, AoR, argued that the principle of 'merit-cum-seniority' only begins once the High Court issues the promotion notification, which includes the names of the candidates in the zone of consideration. Therefore, once a candidate passes the suitability test and achieves the minimum marks, thereby qualifying the merit aspect, the select list is then prepared based on seniority. The successful judges were represented by Senior Advocate Mr. Dushyant Dave and Ms. Mayuri Raghuvanshi, AoR, who argued that the distinction between the 10% quota where limited departmental examinations are held and the 65% quota would diminish if the principle of seniority is not applied while preparing the select list.

Previously, on 12.05.2023, the Supreme Court bench consisting of Justice M R Shah and C T Ravikumar had strongly criticized the State of Gujarat for issuing a notification for appointment based on the Select list of 68 Judges who were selected by the procedure followed by the Gujarat High Court. The court had stayed the select list. However, it limited the stay to those promotees whose names do not appear within the first 68 candidates in the merit list. The court had suggested the matter to be heard by the bench led by the Chief Justice of India.

The court has also proposed recommendations that can be implemented by High Courts across the country while considering for promotion in the 65% category.