The Supreme Court on Thursday sought responses from the Jharkhand High Court registry and the state on the plea of an additional district judge challenging the high court’s decision on the administrative side of declining her plea for “childcare leave” without valid reasons.
District judges come under the purview of the respective high courts.
A bench of Chief Justice of India B.R. Gavai and Justice Augustine George Masih, while issuing notices to the two respondents, posted the matter for final hearing next week, saying: “…We may dispose it of on the earliest date.”
The bench passed the direction after the counsel for the woman judge, Kanishka Prasad, told the apex court that in terms of the high court service conditions and rules, she was entitled to 730 days of childcare leave during her service tenure. However, she had sought only six months’ leave from June to December (180 days) this year, which had been declined, the lawyers pointed out.
According to the counsel, the judge belonged to the“lowest strata of society” and was a “single parent”, as such, there was a genuine need for the leave to take care of her child.
The counsel told the bench that the annual confidential records (ACR) of the judge showed that she had an excellent track record of having heard over 4,500 cases in just two-and-a-half years.
Responding to a query from the bench as to why she did not approach the high court, the counsel said Jharkhand High Court, which was on summer vacation under the rules, does not take up such matters as being “urgent”, hence the petitioner was constrained to approach the Supreme Court for relief.
Judges elevated
President Droupadi Murmu on Thursday cleared the appointments of three new judges — N.V. Anjaria, the Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court; Vijay Bishnoi, the Chief Justice of Gauhati High Court; and A.S. Chandurkar of Bombay High Court as judges of the Supreme Court.
The three judges will be sworn in at a ceremony in the Supreme Court’s additional building complex by Chief Justice B.R. Gavai at 10.30am on Friday.
With this, the Supreme Court has now reached its sanctioned strength of 34 judges, including the CJI. The names of the three judges were recommended for elevation by the Supreme Court collegium on May 26.