SC stays promotion of 68 Gujarat judicial officers, including judge who convicted Rahul

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the promotion of 68 Gujarat lower judicial officers including Surat Chief Judicial Magistrate Harish Hasmukhbhai Varma who had convicted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in a defamation caseA bench comprising Justices M R Shah and C T Ravikumar said as per the Gujarat State Judicial Service Rules 2005 which was amended in 2011 the promotions must be made on principle of meritcumseniority and on passing a suitability testWe are more than satisfied that the impugned list issued by the high court and the subsequent order issued by the state government granting promotion to district judges are illegal and contrary to the decision of this court The same are therefore not sustainable the bench said We stay the implementation of the promotion list Respective promotees are sent to their original post which they were holding prior to their promotion it saidThe top court passed an interim order staying the promotions and directed that the matter be heard by an appropriate bench as Justice Shah is retiring on May 15 The top court was hearing a plea of senior civil judge cadre officers Ravikumar Maheta and Sachin Prataprai Mehta challenging the selection of the 68 judicial officers to the higher cadre of district judgesAlso readBilkis Bano case SC defers till July 11 hearing on pleas against remissionVarma the CJM of Surat is one of the 68 officers of the district lower judiciary whose promotion has also been challenged by Maheta and Mehta presently working as undersecretary in the legal department of the Gujarat government and the assistant director at the state legal services authorityThe top court which had issued notices to the state government and the Registrar General of the Gujarat High Court on April 13 on the plea of the two judicial officers was very critical of the decision and the order passed on April 18 to promote the 68 officers despite knowing the pendency of the case before itIt is very unfortunate that despite the fact that the respondents more particularly the state government was aware of the present proceedings and the fact that in the present proceedings this court made the notice returnable on April 28 2023 the state government has issued the promotion order dated April 18 2023 ie after the receipt of the notice issued by this court in the present proceedings the top court said in its order on April 28This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever