NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday set aside the terminating order of services of two Madhya Pradesh judicial officers, and reinstated them after observing that their termination as "punitive, arbitrary and illegal".
It is significant to note that out of a total of six women judges, four of them were reinstated following the top court's intervention in September last year, the two remaining judges - Aditi Kumar Sharma and Sarita Chaudhary - were not reinstated. These judges had joined the Madhya Pradesh Judicial Services in 2018 and 2017 respectively.
The apex court's two-judge bench, led by Justice BV Nagarathna and Justice N Kotiswar Singh, pronounced the judgment in the suo motu case concerning the dismissal of six women civil judges in Madhya Pradesh.
"The High Court report does not show consistent poor performance of judges. There are inherent contradictions in the ACRs. We have held that opportunity had to be given before termination. Thus, termination is punitive, arbitrary and illegal," the bench of the top court said, in its verdict.
Slamming the way the terminated judges were singled out, the Court said, "We empathise with them, they lost money, finances and gave them anxiety. You must talk to women judicial officers. They take medicines to kill the pain on certain days of the month so that they can sit morning till night in court. You must show sensitivity."
Justice Nagarathna in her verdict narrated that a conducive environment must be created for women judges in India to flourish.
"It is important to understand their entry, then their retention in numbers and advancement to senior echelons of judiciary. Greater representation of women in judiciary will increase the quality of justice being rendered and it also promotes gender equality in broader ways. It is not enough to find comfort in a growing number of women judicial officers unless we secure a comfortable atmosphere for them to work in," the judge said.
While reinstating these two women judicial officers, the top court, in its verdict, noted that one of judges, during the period of assessment, had got married, contracted COVID-19, had a miscarriage, and her brother was diagnosed with cancer.
"We hold that the termination was in the form of punishment. The termination was stigmatic in nature. These could not have been the basis of the termination. Thus orders of full court, administrative report and the government order are set aside," the top court said.
The top court, on January last year, had taken Suo motu (on its own) cognisance of the termination of services of these six women civil judges by the Madhya Pradesh government for their alleged unsatisfactory performance.
The Supreme Court had on July 23 last year asked the MP High Court to re-examine its order of terminating the services of these six women civil judges.
The State law department of the MP government had passed the order of sacking these six women judges, after an administrative committee of it and a full court meeting found their performance during the probation period as unsatisfactory.
In January this year, the top court had issued notice to the Registrar General of the Madhya Pradesh High Court in the suo motu case.
The six women judges whose services have been terminated by the Madhya Pradesh govt are; Aditi Kumar Sharma, Sarita Chaudhary, Priya Sharma, Rachna Atulkar Joshi, Sonakshi Joshi and Jyoti Barkhade.
The Apex Court had earlier appointed noted advocate Gaurav Agarwal as amicus curiae (Friend of the court), who assisted the Court in the matter.
Initially the Madhya Pradesh HC had recommended the termination of the six women judges, after it found that their probation period was unsatisfactory. Therefore it recommended the sacking of these judges.
Acting on the recommendation of the MP HC, the State government in June 2023, had terminated the services of these six women judges.
