The judgment establishes that the High Court's assessment of a Judicial Officer's performance and the Governor's order are essential for retirement decisions, as per the Jammu and Kashmir Civil Service Regulations and relevant case law.

N. Paul Vasanthakumar, J.

This appeal is preferred against the order of the learned Single -Judge made in SWP No. 1326/1996, dated 17.05.2001 wherein the original appellant (deceased) questioned his retirement on completion of 58 years of age as Additional District and Sessions Judge, Reasi with effect from 31.03.1996 afternoon passed by the Registrar General of this Court dated 02.03.1996. The Writ Court allowed the writ petition by order dated 17.05.2001 with directions to request the Governor of the State to pass formal order of retirement of the writ petitioner and also held that the writ petitioner is entitled to salary, allowances and all other consequential benefits. Having-aggrieved about the said order the Registrar General of this Court has preferred this appeal.

2. Mr. A.V. Gupta, learned senior counsel appearing for the High Court argued that order of the Governor is not required when a Judicial Officer is retired at the age of 58 years after the resolution is passed by the Full Court, considering his utility and the said matter was already considered by a Division Bench of this Court in SWP No. 1315/2002, decided on 23.07.2007 (Khawaja Mohd. Qasim v. State and Ors.), therefore, the matter in issue is covered by the judgment of Division Bench and the order of the Writ Court is liable to be set aside.

3. The learned counsel appearing for the respondent during the course of his submissions submitted that judgment in LPA No. 39/2009 dated 27.07.2012 reported in 2013 KLJ 302 : 2012 (3) JKJ 577 [HC] : (High Court of J&K v. Khwaja Mohd. Qasim), even though the competency of the High Court to retire a person without order from the Governor was raised, the same was not answered. He relied on the judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court reported in (1992) 1 SCC 127 (All India Judges Association v. Union of India) and contended that even if the High Court is competent to recommend to the Governor to compulsorily retire a person, under Article 235 of the Constitution of India, a formal order is required to be passed by the Governor, who being the appointing authority. In the light of the Division Bench judgment of this Court dated 23.07.2007, the Division Bench by order of reference dated 10.06.2015 referred the matter to the Full Bench for resolving the issue once for all i.e. to answer as to whether the Governor's order is required to be obtained before a Judicial Officer is retired at the age of 58 years without granting extension of service up to 60 years. Reference made by the learned counsel for the respondents to a decision of Hon'ble the Supreme Court reported in 2011 (10) SCC 1 is with regard to the criteria/norms which shall be taken into account by the High Court in i is administrative capacity while assessing the judicial officers for their continued utility in service. The said judgment nowhere states that on completion of 58 years, if the judicial officer has to be retired without giving extension of service upto 60 years, order of the Governor be obtained or not.

4. That learned senior counsel appearing for the appellant as well as the respondent submitted that the respondent is no more who passed away on 21.06.2015 and his legal heirs are brought on record by this Court by order dated 29.12.2015 to claim service benefits up to the writ petitioner's age of 60 years, and, therefore, while answering the question of law raised, the facts of the case can also be gone into and final order, namely, the validity of the order retiring the respondent (deceased) is justified or not can be decided by the Full Bench itself. Hence by consent the appeal itself is taken up for disposal by the Full Bench along with the question of law referred.

5. The case of the respondent (deceased) before the Writ Court was that lie was appointed as a Munsiff on 18.07.1970 and promoted as Sub-Judge on 19.12.1979 and further promoted a