Supersession of district judges: Supreme Court seeks response of Himachal Pradesh High Court Registrar

The Supreme Court on Monday sought a response from the Registrar General of the Himachal Pradesh High Court on a petition filed by the two senior-most district judges of the State alleging that they were excluded from elevation as High Court judges [Chirag Bhanu Singh and anr v. State of Himachal Pradesh and ors]..A Bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra stated orally that it is necessary to know whether the petitioners' names were processed by the High Court Collegium."...if the recently accommodated judicial officers are considered for elevation, it would cause serious prejudice to the expectations of the petitioners who have an unblemished service record as judicial officers."It thus asked the High Court Registrar for information on whether the High Court Collegium had reconsidered the petitioners' case for elevation based on a Supreme Court Collegium resolution issued in January this year.The matter will be taken up next on July 15..The Bench was hearing a plea filed by district judges Chirag Bhanu Singh and Arvind Malhotra contending that the Himachal Pradesh High Court Collegium overlooked their merit and seniority and superseded them to recommend other judges for elevation as High Court judges. This, despite a January 4 Supreme Court Collegium resolution (not available online) to consider their elevation to the High Court. They also pointed out that the Union Law Ministry had also endorsed their elevation.In this light, the petitioners sought an interim stay on the most recent recommendation of the High Court Collegium. "The action of the Respondents in calling for the judgments of the officers junior to the Petitioners amounts to ignoring the seniority of the petitioners and is violative of the Petitioner’s right under Article 14 and Article 16 of the Constitution of India...The entire process adopted by the High Court collegium stands procedurally and substantially vitiated and contrary to established constitutional convention. The action of the Hon’ble Chief Justice and the collegium is therefore liable to set aside"..Appearing for the petitioners today, Senior Advocate Arvind Datar told the Bench that the High Court Collegium recommended names of much junior judicial officers instead despite his clients' unblemished service.