13 fast-track judges not renewed

The Gujarat government has not renewed the contract of 13 fast-track court (FTC) judges and issued orders to relieve them from service.
However, two of the judges have approached the Supreme Court against the termination and obtained a stay on the relieving order till January 4. The state government has decided not to renew the contracts on the Gujarat High Court’s recommendation on basis of a review of the 13 judges.
But KR Vora of the Nadiad court and BN Trivedi of the Mehsana court filed a suit against their termination. After hearing their arguments, a division bench of Justice JM Panchal and Justice BS Chauhan of the Supreme Court ordered the state government and high court to maintain status quo till the next hearing.
“We have received a fax message from SC directing us to maintain status quo,” registrar general of high court PP Bhatt said. When asked on what basis the judges obtained the stay, Bhatt said these judges were selected from the Bar and offered contracts for certain years. “We will prepare our answer in this regard and submit it to the SC by next hearing,” Bhatt said. The Centre has decided to scrap the FCT scheme by April, 2010.


Judges relieved
YH Upadhyay and PP Trivedi — Ahmedabad rural court
RR Bhatt and RM Patel — City civil court
KR Vora — Nadiad
BN Trivedi — Mehsana
PG Gokani — Jam Khambhalia
AN Mehta and KJ Trivedi — Mehsana
JH Singh — Gandhidham-Kutch
UH Bhatt — Bhavnagar
RB Bhatt — Gandhinagar
BH Oza — Banaskantha