Daijiworld Media Network – Bangalore (SP)

Bangalore, Dec 15: In an important decision, the state High Court (HC), on Tuesday December 14, reversed all the orders issued by its erstwhile Chief Justice (CJ), P D Dinakaran, who is presently functioning as the CJ of Sikkim High Court, relating to the promotion of employees. The order has effected over 250 HC employees including attendars, second grade assistants promoted as first grade assistants, judgment writers and those who were promoted as senior judgment writers from the position of judgment writers.

This is a unique case, as far as the employees of a court going against the decision of their own court, and also because of the fact that the ammendments effected by the Chief Justice to the rules have been nullified by the same court.

Promotion of HC employees, which has been disputed now, was effected by making five ammendments to the High Court (conditions of service) Rules 1973, during the year 2009-09. Justice V Jagannathan, through an order issued on Tuesday, has ordered for the preparation of a fresh promotion list duly following legal rules within eight weeks. He has also ordered that the present employees will continue to discharge duties in their current posts, till the new appointments are finalized.

As per the rules passed in 1973, graduation was not mandatory for the second grade assistants. Likewise, law degrees were not compulsory for other positions in the court. However, Justice Dinakaran had ammended these rules, making these additional educational qualifications mandatory. In their petition, the employees had alleged that the CJ had effected these ammendments with the specific intention of favouring a few persons as per his choice.

In their arguments, advocates for the petitioners, S P Shankar and G Bhagawan, drew the attention of the court to the fact that the CJ had ammended the rules against legal parameters on his own, without obtaining the Governor’s approval. “The draft of the amended rules was sent to the Governor. However, the Governor had not approved it. The Governor had asked the CJ to invite objections from the employees, and then prepare the draft rules before sending it for his approval. But Justice Dinakaran violated the Governor’s instructions, and strangely, ammended the rules on his own, on his own discretion, and without even calling for objections from the employees,” the advocates said. The HC accepted these arguments.