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Supreme Court Grants Relief to Two District Judges in Himachal Pradesh
The Supreme Court on Friday given respite to two district judges of Himachal Pradesh who had been denied promotion to the Himachal Pradesh High Court by the High Court collegium [Chirag Bhanu Singh and anr v. State of Himachal Pradesh and ors].
A Bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra permitted a plea by District Judges, Chirag Bhanu Singh and Arvind Malhotra and directed the High Court collegium to reconsider their recommendations in conformity with the stated formalities.
The two judges petitioned the apex court saying that the High Court collegium ignored their experience and seniority and relegated them to be replaced by other judges for promotion to the High Court judges.
In the recent case the apex court supported the petitioners and found that it was the decision of the Chief Justice only and not of the collegium.
”Second judge case shows that the procedure for the reconsideration of the names of the two petitioners is unconstitutional,” the top court said, adding that there was no collegial deliberation.
They also stated that the High Court collegium has to consider the resolution passed by the Supreme Court collegium on January 4 and according to which the High Court should consider the names of the petitioners.
“Therefore, the High Court Collegium has to reconsider the recommendations in pursuant of the Supreme Court Resolutions,” the Court stated and thus, the matter stands allowed in the above terms.
The research paper also focuses on the Judgement of Hon’ble Mr.Justice Hrishikesh Roy And Hon’ble Mr.Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra
The learned Judge Hrishikesh Roy and The learned Judge Prashant Kumar Mishra
The petitioners came to the Court on grounds that the High Court Collegium failed to take into consideration their candidature while there is a Supreme Court Collegium resolution dated January 4 (unavailable online) recommending the elevation of the petitioners to the High Court and supported by the Union Law Ministry.
In this regard therefore, the petitioners, namely the two most senior District Judges of the State, had applied for an interim order of stay of the impugned resolution of the High Court Collegium.
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It was on May 13 that the top court had sought response from the Registrar General of the High Court in the case.
It had orally said that it needs to have information whether the petitioners’ names went through High Court Collegium.
Arvind Datar Senior Advocate along with Bina Madhavan, S Udaya Kumar Sagar, Shreyasi Kunwar, Shubhangi Arora, Niharika Tanneru briefed a team from Lawyer S Knit & Co for the judges.
Senior Advocates Dr. S Muralidhar, K Parameshwar, Advocates Kanti, Shreenivas Patil, Independent Counsel Chitransha Singh Sikarwar and Raji Gururaj were present for Himachal Pradesh High court.
