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The Gauhati High Court through the Registrar General v. Goto Ete and Others

Civil Appeal · 2018 INSC 392Decided 23 Apr 2018
Civil Appeal No. 4298 of 2018
Justice A.K. Sikri · Justice Ashok Bhushan

Background

In 2001, three respondents were appointed on a contract basis as Additional Deputy Commissioners with powers of Additional Sessions Judge to man Fast Track Courts in Arunachal Pradesh, with their contracts later extended to 2010. When the Gauhati High Court declined to regularise them and terminated their ad hoc services in 2013, they challenged this in the High Court, which ruled in their favour and directed the State to consider absorbing them into the regular judicial service. The High Court (the appellant here) appealed to the Supreme Court against that direction.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court held that the respondents' initial selection was only for a limited, contract-based purpose and did not by itself confer any right to regularisation, since the proviso to Rule 7 of the Arunachal Pradesh Judicial Service Rules, 2006 did not provide for this. It noted that a Committee of three High Court Judges had already examined the respondents' service records and found them unfit for absorption into the regular cadre, and that the respondents had not challenged that assessment. The Court also observed that two of the respondents had failed the qualifying examination for the regular post and the third did not even appear, reinforcing the Committee's conclusion. It therefore allowed the appeal and set aside the High Court's judgment directing regularisation, with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

Working for years on an ad hoc or contract basis, even in a judicial role, does not automatically create a right to permanent regularisation: eligibility rules (such as passing the prescribed written test) must still be satisfied, and a competent committee's considered assessment of unsuitability, if unchallenged, will generally be upheld.

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

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