The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Madhya Pradesh High Court to reexamine its decision to terminate the services of six women civil judges [In Re: Termination of Civil Judge, Class-II (JR. Division) Madhya Pradesh State Judicial Service].
A Bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and N Kotiswar Singh instructed the full court of the High Court to reconsider the representations of the affected judges within a month.
“We request the full court of the Madhya Pradesh High Court to reconsider the cases of these judicial officers. On reconsideration, a copy of the resolution should be placed before this court preferably within four weeks,” the Court ordered.
The Supreme Court had taken suo motu cognizance of the termination of the six judges by the Madhya Pradesh government in January.
The bench appointed Senior Advocate Gaurav Agrawal as Amicus Curiae to assist the Court and issued notice to the Madhya Pradesh High Court.
In June 2023, the State government terminated the services of the six civil judges based on a recommendation from the High Court.
The termination orders were issued by the law department after an administrative committee and a full court meeting found their performance during the probation period unsatisfactory.
In a previous hearing, the bench had orally asked the High Court whether it was willing to reconsider its decision.
When the case was heard by the top court on Tuesday, the Amicus suggested that the High Court should reconsider its decision.
Following this, the Supreme Court ordered the High Court to reexamine the matter.
