SC asks HC to reconsider termination of 6 women judicial officers in MP

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Madhya Pradesh high court to decide within three weeks whether it can reconsider its decision to terminate the services of six women judicial officers for their unsatisfactory performance.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Sanjay Karol was hearing a suo motu (on its own) petition initiated after three of the six former judicial officers approached the top court against the termination of their services.

The bench said it was not passing any written order at present but asked the counsel for the Madhya Pradesh high court to convey the court's view to the HC and seek appropriate instructions.

Justice Karol told the counsel, "You see, institutions do not have egos only status. Convey our intentions to the high court."

Justice Nagarathna added if the high court reconsiders its decision, then the apex court will not pass any orders in the matter.

Senior advocate Gaurav Agarwal, who has been appointed as an amicus curiae to assist the court in the matter, said no adverse remarks had been made about the performance of these former judicial officers by the administrative committee of the high court.

The bench said it was not saying anything at present and only asking the counsel to convey its view to the high court on reconsidering the termination.

On January 12, the top court took cognisance of the termination of the services of the six women civil judges and issued notice to the registrar general of the high court seeking a response.

The court had also issued notice to the axed judicial officers asking them to place on record their contentions.

Agarwal said three of the six former judicial officers, who had approached the top court last year also after their services were terminated, had moved the high court too against their dismissal and their petition is pending there.

He had informed the apex court that the plea which was filed in the top court was later withdrawn.

According to the January 11 office report of the case uploaded on the apex court website, the application by three former civil judges, class-II (junior division) from Madhya Pradesh State Judicial Service was addressed to the apex court.

The three former judges had said the termination happened despite the fact that a quantitative assessment of their work could not be done on account of COVID outbreak.

"It is further submitted that the officers along with three other female officers were appointed in Judicial Services in the state of Madhya Pradesh. They are alleged to be terminated from service primarily on account of disposal not being up to the standards set," the office report said.

The termination orders were passed in June 2023 by the state law department after an administrative committee of the high court and a full court meeting found their performance during the probation period unsatisfactory.

According to an impleadment application filed by one of the former judges through advocate Charu Mathur, despite having an unblemished service record of four years and not having suffered any adverse remarks, she was terminated without following the due process of law.

She alleged her termination from service was a violation of her fundamental rights under Articles 14 (right to equality before law) and 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution.

She said in her application that if the period of her maternity as well as childcare leave is taken into consideration in the quantitative work assessment, it will cause grave injustice to her.

"It is a settled law that maternity and child care leave is a fundamental right of a woman and also the infant, therefore evaluation of the applicant's performance for the probation period on the basis of the leave taken by her as part of maternity and child care is grossly violative of her fundamental rights," the application said.