Promotional selections for Stenographer Grade-I must strictly adhere to the Shetty Commission recommendations, prioritizing Stenographer Grade-II candidates based on binding Supreme Court mandates.

JUDGMENT :

DEVASHIS BARUAH, J.

1. Heard Mr. P.K. Roychoudhury, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners in WP(C) No. 2325/2025; Mr. M.A. Sheikh, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner in WP(C) No. 2410/2025 and Mr. L. Mohan, the learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners in WP(C) No. 3408/2025. Mr. H.K. Das, the learned Standing Counsel appears on behalf of the Gauhati High Court. Mr. T.R. Gogoi, the learned Government Advocate appears on behalf of the Judicial Department of the Government of Assam and Mr. S. Das, the learned counsel appears on behalf of the private respondents.

2. The challenge made in the 3 (three) writ petitions relate to a Notification dated 22.04.2025 whereby the private respondents in WP(C) No. 2325/2025 were selected for promotion to the post of Stenographer Grade-I in the District Courts of Assam. The challenge to the impugned Notification by the petitioners in the respective writ petitions are on different grounds, but taking into account that it relates to the challenge to the impugned Notification dated 22.04.2025, all the 3 (three) writ petitions are taken up together for disposal by this common judgment and order.

3. Before proceeding to analyze the dispute, this Court finds it relevant to take note of the brief facts and the respective challenges made by the petitioners in the 3 (three) writ petitions infra.

WP(C) No. 2325/2025

4. The petitioners herein are working as Stenographer Grade-II in the District Judiciary of Assam. Pursuant to a Notification dated 09.12.2024 issued by the Registrar (Administration)-cum-In charge, Centralized Recruitment, Gauhati High Court inviting applications from serving Stenographers of the District Courts of Assam for participation in the promotional process for promotion to Stenographer Grade-I, the petitioners herein participated in the said selection process. Along with the petitioners, 133 other candidates have also participated in the said selection process. Out of the total 135 numbers of eligible candidates as per the Notification issued on 09.12.2024, 32 numbers of candidates were from Stenographer Grade-II and 103 numbers of candidates were from Stenographer Grade-III. This aspect of the matter would be apparent from a perusal of Annexure-5 of WP(C) No. 2325/2025. Pursuant to the publication of the list of provisionally eligible candidates, which is annexed as Annexure-5 to WP(C) No. 2325/2025, a selection was held in the manner provided in the Notification dated 09.12.2024. At this stage, it is relevant to take note of the manner in which the selection proceedings were to be conducted as stipulated in the Notification dated 09.12.2024 which is reproduced herein under:

“Eligible stenographers, who furnish their options, will have to appear in a Speed Test as indicated below:

5. From the above quoted procedure, so stipulated in the recruitment Notification dated 09.12.2024, it would be seen that the total marks, for which, the selection was to be held was 50 marks and out of that, a candidate securing 30 or more marks would be considered eligible for promotion to Grade-I. It is also very pertinent to take note of the eligibility criteria mentioned in the recruitment Notification dated 09.12.2024 which stipulated that as on the last date of submission of the applications, i.e., 20.12.2024, the candidate has to complete 5 (five) years of service as Stenographer Grade-II or Grade-III in the District Judiciary of Assam. This aspect of the matter assumes importance in view of the challenge made