Judicial Officers With 7 Years’ Combined Experience Eligible for District Judge Post | SC

Case Details: Rejanish K.V. vs. K. Deepa - [2025] 179 taxmann.com 369 (SC)

Judiciary and Counsel Details

• B.R. Gavai | CJI, Aravind Kumar, Satish Chandra Sharma, K. Vinod Chandran & M. M. Sundresh, JJ.
• Paramjit Singh Patwalia, Ms Vibha Datta Makhija, Dama Seshadri Naidu, George Poonthottam, V. Giri, Dr Manish Singhvi, Anil Kaushik, Dr Menaka Guruswamy, Arvind P. Datar, Anand Sanjay M. Nuli, Amit Anand Tiwari, Jayant Bhusan, Rajive Bhalla, Sr. Advs., Santosh Kumar, Ms Anne Mathew, D.K. Devesh, Md. Naushad Alam, Amol B. Karande, Dhruv Gautam, Divyesh Pratap Singh, Nishe Rajen Shonker, Rashid N. Azam, Miss Tanvi Dubey, Aljo K. Joseph, Niraj Gupta, Rajiv Ranjan Dwivedi, Vivek Singh, Ajay Kumar Singh, Ms Sunita Sharma, Ms Tina Garg, AORs, Praveen Gaur, Ms Nehaol Venkateshwara, Ms Richa Singh, Ms Hemlata Rawat, Sanket, Ms Natasha Dalmia, Ms Rohini Narayanan, Ms Harshika Verma, Amith S.J., Ms Deveshi Chand, Shantanu Kumar, Ms Triyyambika Rao, Purushottam Sharma Tripathi, Abhishekh Tripathi, Ms Shambhavi Singh, Mayil Samy K., Vanshdeep Dalmia, Shravanth Paruchuri, K.M. Firoz, Ashish Jacob Mathew, Navaneeth Krishnan A., Ms Silpa Sreekumar, Ms Barnali Basak, Abhishek Mishra, Mrs. Shashi Sharma, Rahul Narang, Ms Shalini Haldar, Shashank Kumar Saurav, Mehul M. Gupta, Mayank Gautam, Rajat Rana, Sanyam Maan, Saurabh Ajay Gupta, Suprabh Kumar Roshan, Saurabh Kansal, Ms Pallavi Sahrma Kansal, Raghav Vij, Ms Ritul Sharma, Ms Sakshi Tiwari, Suraj Kumar Jha, Manish Kumar, Pankaj Kumar Mishra, Ms Archana Mishra, Karan Lahiri, Devashish Chauhan, Ms Madura Mohan Nikalje, Ms Ansh Gulati, Abhilash M.R., Rupali Samuel, Lavkesh Bhambhani, Ms Shaswati Parhi, Bhumika Yadav, Kashish Jain, Nirmal Singh Shekhawat, Rahul Yadav, Rinny Abraham, Manzar Anis, Danish Saifi, Rahul Unnikrishnan, Rohan J. Alva, Ms Charu Mathur, Anant Sanghi, Ms Gayatri T., Vansh Chauhan, Santhosh Kumar Kolkundra, Rajesh Kumar, Ms Ankita Kutthi, N. Leela Vara Prasad, Saket Jee, Narendra Kumar, Ms Anshu Gupta, Shubham Gupta, Ms Siddhi Gupta, Dharam Singh, Suraj Kaushik, Nanda Kumar K.B., Ms Akhila Wali, Shiva Swaroop, Akash Kukreja, Ms Divya Sinha, Ashritsai Torgal, Ayush Gupta, Ms Saumya Saraswat, Kripa Shankar Prasad, Chandra Bhushan Prasad, Harsh Jain, Prafulla, Mohd. Ainul Ansari, Mrs Deepika Misra, Yatharth Singh, Atulesh Kumar, Abhishek Misra, Divesh Kumar, Vaibhav Singh, Ms Shrishti Gautam, Amartya Bhushan, Yojit Mehra, Aman Kumar Tiwari, Jainendra Kumar, Vipin Kumar Mishra, Chandan Kumar Singh, Shailendra Kumar Singh, Adarsh Pandey, Karanvir Singh Khehar, Hari Om Singh Rajaur, Anurag Agarwal, Aditya Kumar, Mohan Krishna Ghosh, Yajur Bhalla, Shubham Bhalla & Ms Gauri Bedi, Advs. for the Appellant.
• Ravindra Srivastava, Vijay Hansaria, Chander Uday Singh, Nidhesh Gupta, Jaideep Gupta, Shekhar G. Devasa, A. Hariprasad, Dama Seshadri Naidu, V. Giri, Dr. Manish Singhvi, Anil Kaushik, Narender Hooda, Sr. Advs., Arjun Garg, Sandeep Sudhakar Deshmukh, Ms Sindoora VNL, Ankolekar Gurudatta, Sunil Kumar Jain, Malak Manish Bhatt, Jagjit Singh Chhabra, Ms Baani Khanna, Ms Usha Nandini V., Amit Gupta, Ms Asmita Singh, Ashok Mathur, Adarsh Upadhyay, Sanchit Garga, V.N. Raghupathy, Ms Deepanwita Priyanka, C.K. Sasi, Azmat Hayat Amanullah, Pradeep Misra, Ms Tina Garg, T.G. Narayanan Nair, Ms Devina Sehgal, Prashant Padmanabhan, John Mathew, M.P. Parthiban, Deepak Goel, Vishal Arun Mishra, Mrinal Kumar Sharma, Pawas Agarwal, Y. Raja Gopala Rao, Prateek Bhatia, Triloki Nath Razdan, D.K. Devesh, Vivek Sharma, Abhijit Banerjee, Ashish Pandey, Rashid N. Azam, Naresh Kumar, Varun Punia, Pranaya Kumar Mohapatra, Ankit Swarup, V. Elanchezhiyan, Chand Qureshi, Mrigank Prabhakar, AORs, Ms Sagun Srivastava, Saaransh Shukla, Ms Muskan Bensla, Nishant Sharma, Ankur Savadikar, Viraj M. Parakh, Mayur Saavarkar, Ms Thithiksha Padmam, Ms Divya Nair, Nihant Panicker, Meesala Venu Gopal, Amith J., Mukesh Kumar Singh, Ms Rashika Swarup, Naman Jain, Gunnam Venkateswara Rao, Ms Kavya Jhawar, Ms Nandini Rai, Aashay Shukla, Robin Singh, Kapil Balwani, Ems Anam, Biju P. Raman, John Thomas Arakal, Ms Bidya Mohanty, Ms Katyayani Suhrud, Abhishek Kalaiyarasan, Kshitij Vaibhav, Ms Muskan Nagpal, Kanhaiya Singhal, Prasanna, Ajay Kumar, Avantika, Ms Vani Singhal, Rahul Bhaskar, Ms Nivedita Tiwari, Nitish Mittal, Pulkit Jolly, Shashwat Tiwari, Ms Ankita Makan, Ms Japneet Kaur, Ms Vriti Gujral, Bikram Dwivedi, Jimut Mohopatra, Ms Pallavi Kumari, Amit Singh, Shashank Pachauri, Mrs. Mithu Jain, Kunal Rana, Shashwat Jaiswal, Bhanu Pratap Singh, Ms Diksha Arora, Ashutosh Garga, Satyalipsu Ray, Dr. K.K. Geetha, Ms Meena K. Poulose, Ms Racheeta Chawla, Ms Riddhi Bose, Ms Sampriti Baksi, Sidharth Banerjee, Ms Nitya Sharma, Ms Rebecca Mishra, Ms Ekta Kundu, Ms Vanshita Gupta, Suraj Kundu, Manish Tiwari, Ms Thashmitha Muthanna, M.K. Ghosh, Ms Swathi H. Prasad, Ms Samyuktha H. Nair, Ajaya Kumar K.R., M. Srikanth Varma, Yatharth Kansal, Ms Mallika Agarwal, Ms Priyaranjani Nagamuthu, Bilal Mansoor, Shreyas Kaushal, S. Geyolin Selvam, Alagiri K., Shivansh Sharma, Rohan Singh, Dr. Vikas Pahal, Ms Alka Goyal, Kamal Kumar Pandey, Jitendra Bharti, Ms Urvashi Sharma, Virag Gupta, Ms Rupali Panwar, Shubham Gupta, Avinash Singh, Yash Sharma, Ramesh Kumar Sahu, Deepanshyu Rana, Rohit Kumar, Dr. Satyam Chansoriya, Sagar Tanwar, Ms Ruby Choudhary, Dhuli Gopi Krishna, Akshay Singh, Ms Sanjana Jain, T. Singh Dev, Rajesh Mishra, Tanishq Shrivastava, Ms Yamini Singh, Abhijit Chakravarty, Bhanu Gulati, Sourabh Kumar, Vedant Sood, Ms Barnali Basak, Abhishek Mishra, Mrs. Shashi Sharma, Rahul Narang, Ms Shalini Haldar, Shashank Kumar Saurav, Mehul M. Gupta, Mayank Gautam, Rajat Rana, Sanyam Maan, Saurabh Ajay Gupta, Suprabh Kumar Roshan, Dr. Vijay Kumar Sharma, S.A. Singh, Prafulla, Shubham Saxena, Adarsh Kumar Pandey, Abhinav Kaushik, Prateek Rai, Ashutosh Bhardwaj, Vignesh Singh, Gaurav Arya, Prashant Trivedi, Gautam Barnwal, Ms Kavya Manuja, Ms Pallvi Hooda, Shiv Bhatnagar, Yuvraj Nandal, Nirmal Singh Shekhawat, Rahul Yadav, Rinny Abraham, Rahul, Manzar Anis, Danish Saifi, K.R. Anand, Mohd. Jawaid H. Khan, Nasim Anwar, Ms Abida, Shafik Ahmed, K.S. Badhrinathan, Veshal Tyagi, Mujahid Ahmad, Chandan Kumar Mandal, Siddharth R. Gupta, Aman Agarwal, Uddaish Palya, Siddharth Sahu, Ms Astha Singh, Advs., Maninderjit Singh Bedi, Advocate General, Rajat Bhardwaj & Aman Panwar, A.A.Gs. for the Respondent.

Facts of the Case

The Supreme Court observed, Whether the Constitution does not provide qualification for in-service candidate for direct recruitment for the post of the District Judge, it only provides qualification for the advocates/pleaders who are desirous of competing for post of the District Judge.

Further observed that, the phrase ‘a person not already in service of the Union or of the State’ in clause (2) of Article 233 of the Constitution of India,1950 has to be read as ‘other than a person already in service of the Union or of the State’ or ‘except person already in service of the Union or of the State’ so as to avoid rendering first part of clause (2) of Article 233 of the Constitution of India,1950 being rendered redundant and otiose.

Further held that, a person who has been or who is in the Judicial Service and has a combined experience of seven years or more as an advocate or a Judicial Officer would be eligible for being considered and appointed as a District Judge under Article 233 of Constitution of India, 1950. Whether in order to provide a level playing field, a candidate applying as an in-service candidate should have seven years’ combined experience as a Judicial Officer and an advocate.

Supreme Court Held

The Supreme Court held that, a person who has been the Civil Judge for a period of seven years or has been an Advocate and the Civil Judge for a combined period of seven years or more than seven years would be eligible for appointment as District Judge under Article 233 of Constitution of India 1950.

Further held that the, minimum age for being considered and appointed as a District Judge/Additional District Judge for both the advocates and the Judicial Officers would be 35 years of age as on date of the application. Thereafter all such rules framed by the State Governments in consultation with the High Courts which are not in accordance with aforesaid answers shall stand quashed and set aside.

List of Cases Reviewed

• Order of High Court of Kerala at Ernakulam in WA-1075-2020, dated 14-10-2020 (para 174) set aside.
• Satya Narain Singh v. High Court of Judicature at Allahabad [1985] 1 SCC 225 (para 69)
• Dheeraj Mor v. High Court of Delhi [2020] 7 SCC 401 (para 154) disapproved
• Vijay Kumar Mishra v. High Court of Judicature at Patna [2017] 8 taxmann.com 952 (SC)/(2016) 9 SCC 313 (para 88) distinguished
• All India Judges’ Association v. Union of India and Others 2002 taxmann.com 3827 (SC)/(2002) 4 SCC 247 (para 156)
• Property Owners Association v. State of Maharashtra 2024 SCC OnLine SC 3122 (para 166) followed

List of Cases Referred to

• Deepak Aggarwal v. Keshav Kaushik [2013] 5 SCC 277
• Surendra Singh v. State of U.P. 2012 SCC Online All 37
• Harbhajan Singh v. Press Council of India [2002] 3 SCC 722
• Mubarak Mazdoor v. K.K. Banerji 1957 SCC Online All 196 (para 7)
• Rameshwar Dayal v. State of Punjab 1960 SCC OnLine SC 123
• Chandra Mohan v. State of Uttar Pradesh 1966 SCC OnLine SC 35
• Union of India v. Hansoli Devi [2002] 7 SCC 273
• Dheeraj Mor v. High Court of Delhi [2020] 7 SCC 401
• All India Judges’ Association v. Union of India 2002 taxmann.com 3827 (SC)
• Mahesh Chandra Gupta v. Union of India [2009] 8 SCC 273
• State of Bihar v. Bal Mukund Sah [2000] 4 SCC 640
• State of Assam v. Kuseswar Saikia [1969] 3 SCC 505
• A. Panduranga Rao v. State of Andhra Pradesh [1975] 4 SCC 709
• Satya Narain Singh v. High Court of Judicature at Allahabad [1985] 1 SCC 225
• Sushma Suri v. Govt. of National Capital Territory of Delhi [1999] 1 SCC 330
• Vijay Kumar Mishra v. High Court of Judicature, At Patna [2017] 8 taxmann.com 952 (SC)
• Ashok Kumar Sharma v. Chander Shekhar [1997] 4 SCC 18
• Reserve Bank of India v. Peerless General Finance and Investment Co. Ltd [1987] 1 SCC 424
• Vivek Narayan Sharma v. Union of India [2023] 146 taxmann.com 36 (SC)
• Satish Kumar Sharma v. Bar Council of H.P. [2001] 2 SCC 365
• Leela Dhar v. State of Rajasthan [1981] 4 SCC 159
• Tej Prakash Pathak v. Rajasthan High Court [2025] 2 SCC 1
• All India Judges’ Association v. Union of India 2025 SCC OnLine SC 1184
• Property Owners Association v. State of Maharashtra 2024 SCC OnLine SC 3122.