Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 25: Division Bench of State High Court comprising Chief Justice M M Kumar and Justice Hasnain Massodi has allowed the appeal of the High Court and set-aside the Writ Court order whereby the petitioner was held entitled to the Selection Grade post of District and Sessions Judge.
The petitioner/respondent Ghulam Nabi Gowhar was working on the post of District and Sessions Judge and when his turn for consideration for Selection Grade post reached, Full Court of the High Court in a meeting held on October 14, 1991 discussed his case. However, the Full Court didn’t find him qualifying for grant of selection grade on account of the fact that the officer had earned two average reports for the years 1989-90 and 1990-91. However, the Writ Court held him entitled for selection grade and against this judgement State High Court filed LPA.
After hearing Advocate General M I Qadiri with Government Advocate Shah Amir appearing for the State High Court whereas Senior Advocate Z A Shah with Advocate A Hanan appearing for the petitioner, Division Bench referred the judgment of the Supreme Court and said, “we failed to appreciate as to how the Single Judge could read any other consideration in the decision of the High Court to deny the selection grade to the petitioner/respondent”.
“In causal course of business the consideration of cases for promotion, increment, efficiency bar and selection grade are not taken immediately after the promotions are due. The delay in considering the cases would not mean as suggested by the Writ Court that it was on extraneous considerations”, the DB further observed.
“The judgment of the Supreme Court in Dev Dutt’s case would not require any detailed consideration because reading of paras of judgment suggests that new principles have to be applied prospectively. The rules developed in 2008 cannot be applied to a case of 1991, therefore, we do not find any substance in the submissions”, the DB said.
With these observations, Division Bench allowed the appeal filed by the State High Court and set-aside the judgment of Writ Court.
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