Uttarakhand High Court rejects plea to consider discharged UP judicial officer for district judge post

The Uttarakhand High Court has dismissed a plea by a former Uttar Pradesh judicial officer who sought to be considered as a candidate for the direct recruitment to Uttarakhand Higher Judicial Service. [Rahul Singh Versus State of Uttarakhand and others].The division bench of Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi and Justice Rakesh Thapliyal found that despite being a man of law, the former judicial officer (petitioner) chose to suppress information regarding his discharge from service by the State of Uttar Pradesh in September 2014.The Court noted that the advertisement for the recruitment drive had put all candidates to notice that they should not furnish any false particulars or suppress any material information.However, the Court pointed out that the petitioner even failed to enclose the discharge order and that by itself was sufficient to reject his candidature. In the application, the petitioner had only mentioned that he had served as a Judicial Magistrate in the Uttar Pradesh Judicial Service from June 4, 2013, to September 27, 2014..The bench further noted the information passed on by the Allahabad High Court regarding events that preceded the petitioner's discharge from judicial service in Uttar Pradesh. The Allahabad High Court, in response to a query letter from the Uttarakhand High Court, had mentioned an incident of alleged manhandling of a fellow probationer by the petitioner at a club in Lucknow.The Uttarakhand High Court opined that it cannot ignore this information only because the discharge of the petitioner was simpliciter one, while he was on probation. The Court also noted that the petitioner had not challenged these allegations, despite being aware of such confidential information. “Despite that being the position, the petitioner has not chosen to challenge the said communication, which could have been challenged only before the Allahabad High Court, as the said communication emanated from that Court,” it added.The Court, therefore, upheld its 2020 decision to reject the petitioner's candidature for judicial services in Uttarakhand. “We, therefore, do not find the action taken by the Uttarakhand High Court to be either illegal, or unreasonable, in rejecting the petitioner’s candidature,” the Court said..In April 2019, the Uttarakhand High Court had invited applications from practice advocates for filing up six vacant posts of Additional District and Sessions Judge. The petitioner participated and was placed at Serial No. 1 of the merit, but his candidature was rejected in 2020.The petitioner challenged this decision and argued that since the discharge was simpliciter, the Court should not have acted on the Allahabad High Court’s confidential information.The respondent-authorities, however, countered that the petitioner also lacked the requisite experience of continuous seven years of practice as an advocate when he applied for the post.The High Court, therefore, dismissed the petitioner's plea. .Senior Counsel Arvind Vashistha and Advocates Shubham Saharawa and Brijesh Kashyap represented the former judicial officer.Additional Advocate General Amarendra Pratap Singh represented the State. Advocates Shobhit Saharia and Lalit Belwal represented the respondents..[Read Judgment]