HC reserves order on terminated FTC judges

Ahmedabad: The Gujarat high court on Wednesday reserved its order on petitions filed by five fast-track court judges, whose services have been terminated by authorities. These five FTC judges approached the high court requesting it to absorb them in regular cadre as ad hoc additional district judges, after an administrative committee of the high court terminated their services. As hearing completed on Wednesday, a bench of chief justice S J Mukhopadhaya and justice J B Pardiwala kept its order pending.
Last year, services of 65 such FTC judges, including these five, were terminated by the state government at the behest of the high court which held that they were not suitable for job. These appointments were on ad hoc basis for three years and the authorities kept on extending terms of these judges after 2005. Many of these judicial officers challenged the decision to discontinue their services. While in most cases, a division bench upheld the decision, it had asked the administrative committee of the high court to reconsider the termination of 12 FTC judges. Accordingly, their case was reconsidered in March last year and the committee ordered to continue services of six of them. But before they were continued, the centre decided to close its project of fast-track courts from April 1, 2011. This again put their case in doldrums forcing them to move the high court again demanding absorption in regular cadre.
During the hearing, these FTC judges’ counsel argued that as HC had concluded they were not unsuitable and were fit for the job. They also argued that after Centre’s announcement of shelving the project of FTC, state government had absorbed senior civil judges, who were promoted as FTC judges. Therefore, these five should also be absorbed.