NEW DELHI: In a rare instance, SC Friday reinstated two Madhya Pradesh women judicial officers after quashing their “punitive, arbitrary and illegal” termination by HC and cautioned that there cannot be any comfort in finding increasing numbers of women in judicial services without a safe and gender-sensitive work environment.
Asking HC and state govt to put Sarita Choudhary and Aditi K Sharma back as judicial officers without the termination period impacting their careers, a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and N Kotiswar Singh said the May 13, 2023 resolution of HC and consequent termination order of May 23, 2023 “are illegal and contrary to the established principles of law and, therefore, are liable to be set-aside and are set-aside”.
Writing the 125-page judgment, Justice Nagarathna said, “Many have stressed that increased diversity within a judiciary, and ensuring judges are representative of society, enables the judiciary as a whole to better respond to diverse social and individual contexts and experiences. It is a recognition of this fact that a greater representation of women in the judiciary, would greatly improve the overall quality of judicial decision making and this impacts generally and also specifically in cases affecting women.”
HC had terminated six women judicial officers. SC took suo motu cognisance and requested HC to reconsider the decision. HC revoked the terminations of Jyoti Varkade, Sonakshi Joshi, Priya Sharma and Rachna Atulkar Joshi. The remaining two terminated officers challenged their termination before SC.
Justice Nagarathna said judicial appointment of women at senior levels can shift gender stereotypes.
One of the terminated judicial officers had suffered a miscarriage during the period of scrutiny of her judicial work. The bench said such an event results in psychological consequences and observed that the administrative committees of the HCs need to be sensitive towards women judicial officers & their health.
While ordering their reinstatement in judicial service within 15 days, the SC said the petitioners would not be entitled to any salary from the date of termination till their reinstatement but the monetary benefits for the said period shall be calculated notionally for the purpose of pensionary benefits. SC added that HC’s administrative committee can decide the pending complaints against the judicial officers in accordance with law.