High Court order not final, says CJI TS Thakur

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur on Monday assured Telangana state judicial officers that justice would be done to them and any order passed by the High Court on cadre division will be subject to the outcome of petitions filed by the state government and the judges association.

A bench of Chief Justice Thakur and Justice A.M. Kanwilkar refused to stay the April order saying, “We are not staying anything now.”

The CJI told senior counsel Indira Jaising for the judges association and Harin Raval for the TS government that these people (judicial officers) who went on strike are “being sensitive and spoiled the whole thing”.

The CJI observed, “The atmosphere has been vitiated because of their personal ambition. They have been together from time immemorial and suddenly they have become intolerant. We will find some solution. They are part of our judicial family. They should remain reassured that justice will be done to them.”

The bench issued notice to the Centre, the High Court and the AP government seeking their response in four weeks.

Earlier, ASG Maninder Singh informed the bench that an advisory committee as envisaged in the AP Reorganisation Act for division of judges between the two states had been constituted and it had issued guidelines for the purpose. But the High Court had passed an order that the Centre had no jurisdiction and only the High Court would have control over the subordinate judiciary. The matter has to be examined by the apex court, the ASG said.

Ms Jaising submitted that recruitment was made on the basis of option given to the judicial officers and most of the AP officers had opted for TS.

The association pointed out that the recruitment was done without permitting the option envisaged in Section 77(2) of the AP Reorganisation Act, 2014, and the vacancies notified for the year 2015 in the AP State Judicial Services without bifurcation was illegal, arbitrary and violative of the fundamental rights of the judicial officers belonging to TS.

Ever since the establishment of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in 1956, there has consistently been inadequate representation of TS judges in the cadres of junior civil judges, senior civil judges, district judges and even judges of High Court.

It said fewer appointments to the posts of junior civil judges and district judges had resulted in inadequate representation in the district judiciary in TS. The posts of district judges being the feeder category for promotion to the judges of the High Court, there was inadequate representation of the judges from TS in the High Court. Even amongst the elevation to the High Court from the Bar also there was inadequate representation from the Telangana region.

The representation of Telangana Judges is only 25 per cent in the Judiciary reflecting the enormity of injustice caused to Telangana origin judges, Ms Jaising said.