IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION WRIT PETITION NO.15018 OF 2023 BASAVRAJ Pushpa w/o. Virendra Ganediwala ….. Petitioner GURAPPA PATIL Vs.

Digitally signed by BASAVRAJ GURAPPA PATIL Date: 2025.03.13

15:45:12 +0530 High Court of Judicature of Bombay & Ors. ….. Respondents Mr. Sunil Manohar, Senior Advocate with Mr. Nikhil Sakhardande, Senior Advocate and Mr. Pralhad Paranjape, Mr. Ankit B. Rathod, Mr. Onkar Bajaj, Mr. Atharva S. Manohar i/b. Anshu Agrawal for the petitioner Mr. Virendra Tulzapurkar, Senior Advocate a/w.Mr. Rahul Nerlekar for respondent No.1 to 3 Mrs. Neha S. Bhide, Govt. Pleader with Mr. O. A. Chandurkar, Additional Govt. Pleader and Mrs. G. R.

Raghuwanshi, AGP for respondent Nos.5 and 6 – State CORAM: ALOK ARADHE, CJ. &

BHARATI DANGRE, J.

RESERVED ON : MARCH 7, 2025 PRONOUNCED ON : MARCH 13, 2025 JUDGMENT: (PER : CHIEF JUSTICE)

1. Rule. Rule is made returnable forthwith. By consent of the learned Counsel for the parties, the writ petition is heard finally.

2. In this petition, the petitioner has assailed the communication dated 2^nd November 2022 issued by the Registrar (Original Side), High Court, Bombay, by which the petitioner, who was a former Judge of this Court, has been informed that she is not eligible for pension. The petitioner also seeks a direction to respondents to fix and grant pensionary benefits to the petitioner w.e.f. 14.02.2022 along with interest.

(i) FACTS :-

3. Facts giving rise to this petition, in nutshell, are that the petitioner was a practicing advocate. The petitioner, on 26^th October 2007 was appointed as a District Judge. The collegium of the Supreme Court on 16.01.2019 recommended the name of the petitioner for appointment as a Judge of Bombay High Court. On the basis of the aforesaid recommendation, a Notification dated 8^th February 2019 was issued under Article 224(1) of the Constitution of India. The petitioner was elevated as an Additional Judge of the Bombay High Court for a period of two years with effect from the date she assumed charge. The petitioner assumed charge as an Additional Judge of the High Court, Bombay on 13^th February 2019. The Central Government issued a Notification dated 12^th February 2021 under Article 224(1) of the Constitution of India by which the tenure of the petitioner as Additional Judge of Bombay High Court was extended w.e.f. 13^th February 2021 for a period of one year. The tenure of the petitioner as Additional Judge was to expire on 12^th February 2022. The petitioner tendered resignation on 11^th February 2022. The Central Government, Ministry of Law and Justice, Government of India, by Notification dated 14^th March 2023 notified the resignation of the petitioner.

4. The petitioner submitted an application on 17^th February

2022 to the Registry of this Court in which she claimed pension on account of having rendered services as an Additional Judge of this Court for a period of 2 years 11 months and 29 days and as District Judge for a period of 11 years 3 months and 18 days. The petitioner, by communication dated 2^nd November 2022 was informed by the Registry of this Court that she is not entitled to claim pension on the basis of the opinions given by the following namely (1) Under Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Law & Justice, (Department of Justice), New Delhi, (2) Office of the Principal Accountant General (A & E)-II Maharashtra, Nagpur (3) Legal Advisor-And-Joint Secretary, Government of Maharashtra, Law & Judiciary Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai and (4) the Advocate General of Maharashtra State.

5. The petitioner, on 2^nd January 2023 submitted an application under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (2005 Act) seeking copies of the information mentioned in the communication dated 2^nd November 2022 sent by the registry of this Court. The Public Information Officer of this Court, on 10^th January 2023 supplied the copies of the information referred to in the application dated 2^nd November 2022, to the p