The Madhya Pradesh High Court reinstated four female judicial officers who previously been dismissed, following directives from the Supreme Court. The reinstatement comes after the officers appealed their termination, leading to the Supreme Court’s intervention.
Four women civil judges, who previously dismissed due to allegedly unsatisfactory performance, have been reinstated, as reported by the Madhya Pradesh High Court registry to the Supreme Court on Tuesday.
This development noteworthy because the Supreme Court had, in January, taken suo motu cognizance of the termination of six women civil judges by the Madhya Pradesh government on the grounds of alleged unsatisfactory performance.
While issuing notices to the state government and the high court registry, the Supreme Court also sought responses from the dismissed judicial officers.
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On Tuesday, a bench consisting of Justices B V Nagarathna and N Kotiswar Singh informed by the counsel for the Madhya Pradesh High Court registry that during a full court meeting of the high court, a decision made to revoke the termination of four out of the six women judicial officers.
The bench noted that during the full court meeting on August 1, it decided to reinstate these four judicial officers as civil judges in the junior division with a probationary period of one year, although they will not receive back wages.
Lawyer Tanvi Dubey, who represented some of the terminated judicial officers, stated,
“The reinstated judicial officers will be placed at the bottom of their respective batch, and they will regain their original seniority subject to their confirmation,”
The judicial officers whose termination orders have been revoked include Jyoti Varkhade, Sonakshi Joshi, Priya Sharma, and Rachna Atulkaar Joshi.
Regarding the other two women officers, the High Court registry informed the Supreme Court that their termination has not been reversed, with the reasons and other details provided in a sealed cover.
The Supreme Court commended the High Court’s decision and the efforts made by all parties involved, including the lawyers, and subsequently closed the suo motu case.
Earlier, the bench noted in its order that Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud had taken cognizance of the matter, registering it as a writ petition.
Advocate Gaurav Agarwal, who appointed as amicus curiae to assist the court in this case, mentioned that three of the six former judges, who appealed to the Supreme Court last year after their termination, also filed petitions in the Madhya Pradesh High Court challenging their dismissal, which are still pending.
The amicus curiae further explained that these three former judicial officers had initially filed a writ petition in the Supreme Court last year but later withdrew it.
The termination orders, issued in June 2023 by the state’s law department, followed a review by an administrative committee and a full court meeting that found the judges’ performance during their probation period unsatisfactory.
One of the former judges filed an application claiming that despite maintaining an unblemished service record for four years without any adverse remarks, she was terminated without due process of law. She argued that her termination violated her fundamental rights under Articles 14 (right to equality before the law) and 21 (right to life and personal liberty) of the Constitution.
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She also contended that if her maternity and child care leave periods factored into the quantitative work assessment, it would result in significant injustice to her.
The application had read,
“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,”