SC denies seniority quota for higher judicial service

A five-judge bench of the Supreme Court on Wednesday held that length of service cannot be a criteria to create a separate quota for officers in appointment to the higher judicial services (HJS), as it would amountto sacrificing merit.

- Abraham Thomas

The bench, headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) BR Gavai pronounced the decision while considering whether the judges serving in the lower rungs of judiciary should be given benefit of their experience as a judicial officer to get accelerated promotion to become District Judge, compared to their other counterparts from the bar, who enter HJS either by direct recruitment or by writing an examination called the limited departmental competitive examinations (LDCE).

“In our view, there is no basis to consider the previous experience as a civil judge as an intelligible differentia creating a reasonable classification to favour regular promotees (RP) or LDCEs in the selection for higher grade scales or appointment as Principal District Judges,” said the bench, also comprising justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, K VInod Chandran and Joymalya Bagchi.

The unanimous verdict held, “We have no reason to doubt that creating quotas for fixation in the Selection Grade and Super Time Scale within the cadre of District Judges based on the prior service in the lower rungs of the judiciary would be iniquitous and would result in sacrificing merit.”