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Sujata Kohli v. Registrar General, High Court of Delhi & Ors.

Civil Appeal · 2020 INSC 364Decided 24 Apr 2020
Civil Appeal No. 2374 of 2020
Justice A.M. Khanwilkar · Justice Dinesh Maheshwari

Background

The appellant, a Delhi Higher Judicial Service officer, was repeatedly not selected for promotion to District and Sessions Judge / Principal Judge (Family Court) because her ACR gradings ('B+' for several years) fell short of the promotion criteria adopted by the Delhi High Court's Full Court (requiring progressively higher gradings, eventually a straight run of 'A' gradings). She challenged the validity of these Full Court resolutions and the rule enabling them, arguing the criteria were never properly communicated to her and were unfairly applied retrospectively. The Delhi High Court rejected her challenge, while separately directing the High Court administration to frame more uniform grading guidelines for the future.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court agreed with the High Court's reasoning. It held that the appellant had, in fact, been informed of every one of her ACR gradings at the time and never challenged most of them, so she could not now claim she was blindsided. Since promotion to these posts depends on comparative merit among all eligible officers (not a fixed personal benchmark), being passed over in favour of colleagues with better gradings did not amount to a legal grievance. The Court also held there was no requirement to disclose other officers' point-wise ACR scores to her, and that the High Court's own suggestion for more uniform grading guidelines going forward did not retroactively invalidate the system already applied to her case. The appeal was dismissed.

Lesson Learnt

For "merit-cum-seniority" promotions, simply meeting a minimum threshold or not knowing every nuance of the selection criteria in advance is not enough to claim unfairness: what matters is whether you were properly informed of your own performance ratings and given a fair chance to be considered against your peers.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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