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2025 Supreme(Online)(SC) 9907
SUPREME COURT OF INDIA
Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, K. Vinod Chandran, Joymalya Bagchi, JJ
All India Judges Association – Appellant
Versus
Union of India – Respondent
Writ Petition (Civil) No. 1022/1989
Advocates:
For the Appellants/Petitioners: Siddharth Bhatnagar, Ankit Yadav, Aditya Sidhra, Pracheta Kar, Nadeem Afroz, Gunjan Rathore, Shivangi Gulati, Chaitanya Sonkeria, Aastha Harshwal, Akhilesh Kumar Pandey, A. Venayagam Balan, Abhijit Sengupta, Paras Chauhan, Muddam Thirupathi Reddy, N. Maylsamy, Navneet Singh, Kuheli Mitra, Pravir Kumar Jain, Amita Gupta, Rakesh Dahiya
For the Respondents: A. Subhashini, Shibashish Misra, Ajay Kumar, Abhaya Nath Das, Barnali Basak, S S Bandyopadhyay, Syed Miran Ahmad, Thithiksha Padmam, Twinkle Rathi, Boya Kranthi Naidu, Kishor Kumar Mishra, Aditya Mishra, Soumya Kundu, Satish Kumar, Dinesh Dwivedi, Kumar K., Shashant Pratyush, Angad Baxi, Vijay Hansaria, Sneha Kalita, Kavya Jhawar, Nandini Rai, Aashay Shukla, Amit Rawal, Vandana Sharma, Tushan Rawal, Pulkit Shree, Rishika, Lakshita Negi, Kalhan Safaya, Mohammad Ali Khan, Omar Huda, Eesha Bakshi, Kamran Khan, Pragya, Sachit Jolly, Sohum Dua, A. Shankar, Bajpai, Disha Jham, Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Lashmeesh S. Kamath, Samriti Ahuja, Aditi Prakash, Manu Krishnan, Devashish Bharuka, Ravi Bharuka, Shashank Chamoli, Atul Yashwant Chitale, Harshit Sethi, Nikhil Jain, Rahil Mahajan, Mansi Tripathi, Kartik Yadav, Madhav Chitale, Aryan Choudhary, R. Basant, Raunak Arora, Kavinesh R.M., Naman Srivastava, Akash Rajeev, Smrithi V.s., Ashok Gaur, Anil Kumar Verma, Sakshi Singh, P. Priyanka, Aniket Rai, T. V. Ratnam, Arjun Garg, Sagun Srivastava, Saaransh Shukla, Muskan Bensla, G. Indira, Anandh Kannan N., Gopal Jha, Shreyash Bhardwaj, Nimish Arjaria, Suresh Shambhuprasad Kanojia, Amit Chandramohan Jha, Kumar Arnav Singh Deo, Ankit Aggarwal, Nand Kishore Sharma, Binod Thakur, Karan Bharihoke, C Raghavendren, C Rubavathi, P Rajaram, Saurabh Gupta, Devansh Tyagi, Ch Leela Sarveswar, M. A. Chinnasamy, Ajit Pudussery, Raj Kumar Mehta, Adviteeya, Rakesh K. Sharma, Devesh Maurya, Saurabh Rohilla, Krishan Kumar, Sukhamrit Singh, Sheetal Kandpal, Lovely Tyagi, Praveen Swarup, T. Harish Kumar, Ashok Mathur, Manpreet Kaur, Shardha Jutsi, Pradeep Misra, Ashok Kumar Singh, Kumud Lata Das, Arvind Kumar, Harsh Ajay Singh, Pooja Rathore, Siddhant N Das, Dharmendra Kumar Sinha, Vandna Beri, Anil Katiyar, P. Parmeswaran, Revathy Raghavan, A.vaikkalsamy, Kumar Kislay, Shashwat Pratyush, Shubhra Chandu Sharma, Pranav Prakash, Rajiv Mehta, Abhisth Kumar, Arun K. Sinha, P. K. Jain, Jitendra Mohan Sharma, P. I. Jose, P. V. Yogeswaran, Parijat Sinha, Haresh Raichura, Asha Gopalan Nair, T. Mahipal, Naresh K. Sharma, Ranjan Mukherjee, Anil Shrivastav, Avni Shrivastav, Parekh & Co., K.m.nataraj, Nalin Kohli, B.K.satija, Sharath Nambiar, Raman Yadav, Aaditya Dixit, N. Visakamurthy, Gagrat And Co, K. R. Sasiprabhu, Prashant Kumar, Kanhaiya Priyadarshi, M. Veerappa, Arputham Aruna And Co, Radha Shyam Jena, Rajesh Srivastava, Gaurav Verma, Riddhi Gupta, K. Ram Kumar, Anil Nag, Anjani Aiyagari, Sushil Balwada, Kaushal Yadav, Nandlal Kumar Mishra, Hemantika Wahi, Pravir Choudhary, Reepak Kansal, Geeta Rani, Dushyant Sharma, Abhishek Gaur, Ruhi Gupta, Alankrita Chowdhury, Kishan Datta, Corporate Law Group, Guntur Prabhakar, V.Giri, A. Hariprasad, T. G. Narayanan Nair, Swathi H Prasad, Ajaya Kumar K.r., Priya Balakrishnan, Samyuktha H Nair, N. Annapoorani, V. K. Sidharthan, Gopal Singh, T. L. Garg, Mukesh K. Giri, Mandaar Mukesh Giri, Sanjay Jain, G. Prakash, Sunil Kumar Jain, Rashika Swarup, Naman Jain, Chander Shekhar Ashri, Ratan Kumar Choudhuri, Gopal Balwant Sathe, Surya Kant, J. P. Dhanda, V. N. Raghupathy, A. Sumathi, Bina Gupta, R. Sathish, Krishnanand Pandeya, Kamal Mohan Gupta, Manish K. Bishnoi, B. D. Sharma, R. N. Keswani, D. Bharathi Reddy, Nishant Sharma, D Tejaswi Reddy, S. Sukumaran, Anand Sukumar, Bhupesh Kumar Pathak, Ruche Anand, Meera Mathur, T. V. George, Guntur Pramod Kumar, Prerna Singh, Gautam Bhatia, Dhruv Yadav, P. S. Sudheer, Plr Chambers And Co., Taruna Ardhendumauli Prasad, Bijo Mathew Joy, Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Shrirang B. Varma, Bharat Bagla, Sourav Singh, Aditya Krishna, Adarsh Dubey, Chitransha Singh Sikarwar, Sameer Abhyankar, Ripul Swati Kumari, Yachna Sharma, Shiv Mangal Sharma, Abhinandini Sharma, Nidhi Jaswal, Sanjay Kumar Tyagi, Ashutosh Dubey, Rajshri Dubey, Abhishek Chauhan, Amit P Shahi, Amit Kumar, Anirban Tripathi, Rajendra Anbhule, Sona Khan, Sumant Akram Khan, H B Dubey, Anirban Tripathy, Purushottam Sharma Tripathi, Rajiv Kumar, Vani Vyas, Prakhar Singh, Pragya Baghel, Vivek Jain, Nupur Kumar, Sadiq Noor, Nachiketa Joshi, Abhimanyu Singh Ga, Sarad Kumar Singhania, Ankur Kashyap, G. N. Reddy, Ranjeeta Rohatgi, Ajay Pal, Atul Kumar, Archana Kumari, Sweety Singh, Rahul Pandey, Ashutosh Upadhyay, Rajshekhar Rao, Amit Gupta, Muskan Nagpal, Kshitij Vaubhav, Areeb Amanullah, Vishakha Gupta, Kaushik Choudhury, Chirag M. Shroff, Amrish Kumar, Sujata Kurdukar, Sravan Kumar Karanam, M. Harshini, G. Sushmita, Abhishek Atrey, Ishita Bist, Ambika Bhardwaj, Navneet Gupta, Mayuri Raghuvanshi, Vyom Raghuvanshi, Akanksha Rathore, Adarsh Upadhyay, Pallavi Kumari, Shashank Pachauri, D. K. Devesh, Milind Modi, Shashank Singh, Rajan Kumar, Ankit Singh, Umar Iqbal Khan, Mukesh Kumar Maroria, Vinayak Sharma, Padmesh Mishra, Daya Krishan Sharma, Rohit Vats, Shubham Rana, Shubhangi Nasa, Kunal Vajani, Kunal Mimani, Prashant Alai, Preetika Dwivedi, Abhisek Mohanty, Mahesh Thakur, Satyajeet Kumar, Prashant Shukla, Suyash Srivastava, Abhishek Tiwari, Giridhar Upadhayay, Vivek Sharma, Siddharth R Gupta, Mrigank Prabhakar, Aman Agarwal, Uddaish Palya, Siddharth Sahu, Astha Singh, Raj Bahadur Yadav, Rajeeva Ranjan Rajesh, Suvesh Kumar, Satish Pandey, Abdul Qadir, Bandana Rai, Netasha Thukral, Nafis A. Siddiqui, Jai Jaimini Pandey, Braj Kishore Mishra, Harshika Tiwari, Sarveshwar Singh, Aravindh S., Jyotika Sharma, Enakshi Mukhopadhyay Siddhanta, Rao Raj Bahadur Singh, R. Murugaiyan, Vedant Mishra, Shaji J Kodankandath, Smita Amratlal Vora, Hemant Gupta, Samar Vijay Singh, Payal Gupta, Sabarni Som, Rony John, Aman Dev Sharma, Gaj Singh, Soumyadeep Chatterjee, Aarti Harish Bhandari, Rajat Sinha Roy, Jaideep Gupta, Kunal Chatterji, Maitrayee Banerjee, Rohit Bansal, Varij Nayan Mishra, Abhishek Yadav, Mahfooz Ahsan Nazki, Santosh Krishnan, Niranjan Sahu, Shivangi Gupta, Vishakha, Aswathi M.k., Anando Mukherjee, Smarhar Singh, Shweta Kumari, Dhananjaya Kumar Tyagi, Mohd Asim, Pankaj Prakash, Jai Krishna Singh, Raghvendra Kumar, Anil Kumar Mishra-i, Amit Sharma, Dipesh Sinha, Pallavi Barua, Aparna Singh, Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, Karun Sharma, Anupama Ngangom, Rajkumari Divyasana, Astha Sharma, Radhika Gautam, Amit Anand Tiwari, Sabarish Subramanian, Devyani Gupta, Saushriya Havelia A, Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Tanvi Anand, Danish Saifi, Ankita Sharma, Arjun D Singh, Ishika Neogi, Venkata Raghuvamsy D., Dilip Annasaheb Taur, Sandeep Sudhakar Deshmukh, Mayur Saavarkar, Pai Amit, Pankhuri Bhardwaj, Abhiydaya Vats, Merin Francis, Bhavana Duhoon, Akshay Girish Ringe, Kartikeya Rastogi, Inder Deep Kaur Raina, Tamanna Kavdia, Vinod Sharma, Sumeer Sodhi, Rajiv Ranjan Dwivedi, Namita Choudhary, Apoorv Kurup, Nidhi Mittal, Shuvodeep Roy, Saurabh Tripathi, Deepayan Dutta, Sahil Tagotra, Shreya Kasera, Rakesh Talukdar, Neeraj Kr.sharma, Kanu Agrawal, Vatsal Joshi, Mukesh Kumar Verma, Piyush Beriwal, Harish Pandey, Krishna Kant Dubey, Shashwat Parihar, Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, Santosh Ramdurg, S. Gowthaman, D. L. Chidananda, Som Raj Choudhury, Maninder Acharya, K. Enatoli Sema, Amit Kumar Singh, Chubalemla Chang, Prang Newmai, Yanmi Phazang, Siddharth Sangal, Maibam Nabaghanashyam Singh, Ahanthem Henry, Ahanthem Rohen Singh, Mohan Singh, Aniket Rajput, Khoisnam Nirmala Devi, Yeshu Mehta, Tanay Hegde, Kumar Mihir, Asmita Singh, Ankita Makan, Sunny Choudhary, Sanjai Kumar Pathak, Shashi Pathak, Arvind Kumar Tripathi, Shweta Singh, Nishe Rajen Shonker, Anu K Joy, Alim Anvar, Santhosh K, Devika A.l., Manju Jetley, Manish Kumar, Divyansh Mishra, Kumar Saurav, Gunnam Venkateswara Rao, Chanchal Kumar Ganguli, Deepanwita Priyanka, Satyalipsu Ray, Deepak Singh, Shishir Kumar Jha, Priyal Sheth, Amit Kumar, Avijit Mani Tripathi, Aditya S. Pandey, T.k. Nayak, Aditya Kumar, Ramesh Babu M. R., Manisha Ambwani
For the Appellants/Petitioners: Siddharth Bhatnagar, Ankit Yadav, Aditya Sidhra, Pracheta Kar, Nadeem Afroz, Gunjan Rathore, Shivangi Gulati, Chaitanya Sonkeria, Aastha Harshwal, Akhilesh Kumar Pandey, A. Venayagam Balan, Abhijit Sengupta, Paras Chauhan, Muddam Thirupathi Reddy, N. Maylsamy, Navneet Singh, Kuheli Mitra, Pravir Kumar Jain, Amita Gupta, Rakesh Dahiya
For the Respondents: A. Subhashini, Shibashish Misra, Ajay Kumar, Abhaya Nath Das, Barnali Basak, S S Bandyopadhyay, Syed Miran Ahmad, Thithiksha Padmam, Twinkle Rathi, Boya Kranthi Naidu, Kishor Kumar Mishra, Aditya Mishra, Soumya Kundu, Satish Kumar, Dinesh Dwivedi, Kumar K., Shashant Pratyush, Angad Baxi, Vijay Hansaria, Sneha Kalita, Kavya Jhawar, Nandini Rai, Aashay Shukla, Amit Rawal, Vandana Sharma, Tushan Rawal, Pulkit Shree, Rishika, Lakshita Negi, Kalhan Safaya, Mohammad Ali Khan, Omar Huda, Eesha Bakshi, Kamran Khan, Pragya, Sachit Jolly, Sohum Dua, A. Shankar, Bajpai, Disha Jham, Gopal Sankaranarayanan, Lashmeesh S. Kamath, Samriti Ahuja, Aditi Prakash, Manu Krishnan, Devashish Bharuka, Ravi Bharuka, Shashank Chamoli, Atul Yashwant Chitale, Harshit Sethi, Nikhil Jain, Rahil Mahajan, Mansi Tripathi, Kartik Yadav, Madhav Chitale, Aryan Choudhary, R. Basant, Raunak Arora, Kavinesh R.M., Naman Srivastava, Akash Rajeev, Smrithi V.s., Ashok Gaur, Anil Kumar Verma, Sakshi Singh, P. Priyanka, Aniket Rai, T. V. Ratnam, Arjun Garg, Sagun Srivastava, Saaransh Shukla, Muskan Bensla, G. Indira, Anandh Kannan N., Gopal Jha, Shreyash Bhardwaj, Nimish Arjaria, Suresh Shambhuprasad Kanojia, Amit Chandramohan Jha, Kumar Arnav Singh Deo, Ankit Aggarwal, Nand Kishore Sharma, Binod Thakur, Karan Bharihoke, C Raghavendren, C Rubavathi, P Rajaram, Saurabh Gupta, Devansh Tyagi, Ch Leela Sarveswar, M. A. Chinnasamy, Ajit Pudussery, Raj Kumar Mehta, Adviteeya, Rakesh K. Sharma, Devesh Maurya, Saurabh Rohilla, Krishan Kumar, Sukhamrit Singh, Sheetal Kandpal, Lovely Tyagi, Praveen Swarup, T. Harish Kumar, Ashok Mathur, Manpreet Kaur, Shardha Jutsi, Pradeep Misra, Ashok Kumar Singh, Kumud Lata Das, Arvind Kumar, Harsh Ajay Singh, Pooja Rathore, Siddhant N Das, Dharmendra Kumar Sinha, Vandna Beri, Anil Katiyar, P. Parmeswaran, Revathy Raghavan, A.vaikkalsamy, Kumar Kislay, Shashwat Pratyush, Shubhra Chandu Sharma, Pranav Prakash, Rajiv Mehta, Abhisth Kumar, Arun K. Sinha, P. K. Jain, Jitendra Mohan Sharma, P. I. Jose, P. V. Yogeswaran, Parijat Sinha, Haresh Raichura, Asha Gopalan Nair, T. Mahipal, Naresh K. Sharma, Ranjan Mukherjee, Anil Shrivastav, Avni Shrivastav, Parekh & Co., K.m.nataraj, Nalin Kohli, B.K.satija, Sharath Nambiar, Raman Yadav, Aaditya Dixit, N. Visakamurthy, Gagrat And Co, K. R. Sasiprabhu, Prashant Kumar, Kanhaiya Priyadarshi, M. Veerappa, Arputham Aruna And Co, Radha Shyam Jena, Rajesh Srivastava, Gaurav Verma, Riddhi Gupta, K. Ram Kumar, Anil Nag, Anjani Aiyagari, Sushil Balwada, Kaushal Yadav, Nandlal Kumar Mishra, Hemantika Wahi, Pravir Choudhary, Reepak Kansal, Geeta Rani, Dushyant Sharma, Abhishek Gaur, Ruhi Gupta, Alankrita Chowdhury, Kishan Datta, Corporate Law Group, Guntur Prabhakar, V.Giri, A. Hariprasad, T. G. Narayanan Nair, Swathi H Prasad, Ajaya Kumar K.r., Priya Balakrishnan, Samyuktha H Nair, N. Annapoorani, V. K. Sidharthan, Gopal Singh, T. L. Garg, Mukesh K. Giri, Mandaar Mukesh Giri, Sanjay Jain, G. Prakash, Sunil Kumar Jain, Rashika Swarup, Naman Jain, Chander Shekhar Ashri, Ratan Kumar Choudhuri, Gopal Balwant Sathe, Surya Kant, J. P. Dhanda, V. N. Raghupathy, A. Sumathi, Bina Gupta, R. Sathish, Krishnanand Pandeya, Kamal Mohan Gupta, Manish K. Bishnoi, B. D. Sharma, R. N. Keswani, D. Bharathi Reddy, Nishant Sharma, D Tejaswi Reddy, S. Sukumaran, Anand Sukumar, Bhupesh Kumar Pathak, Ruche Anand, Meera Mathur, T. V. George, Guntur Pramod Kumar, Prerna Singh, Gautam Bhatia, Dhruv Yadav, P. S. Sudheer, Plr Chambers And Co., Taruna Ardhendumauli Prasad, Bijo Mathew Joy, Aaditya Aniruddha Pande, Siddharth Dharmadhikari, Shrirang B. Varma, Bharat Bagla, Sourav Singh, Aditya Krishna, Adarsh Dubey, Chitransha Singh Sikarwar, Sameer Abhyankar, Ripul Swati Kumari, Yachna Sharma, Shiv Mangal Sharma, Abhinandini Sharma, Nidhi Jaswal, Sanjay Kumar Tyagi, Ashutosh Dubey, Rajshri Dubey, Abhishek Chauhan, Amit P Shahi, Amit Kumar, Anirban Tripathi, Rajendra Anbhule, Sona Khan, Sumant Akram Khan, H B Dubey, Anirban Tripathy, Purushottam Sharma Tripathi, Rajiv Kumar, Vani Vyas, Prakhar Singh, Pragya Baghel, Vivek Jain, Nupur Kumar, Sadiq Noor, Nachiketa Joshi, Abhimanyu Singh Ga, Sarad Kumar Singhania, Ankur Kashyap, G. N. Reddy, Ranjeeta Rohatgi, Ajay Pal, Atul Kumar, Archana Kumari, Sweety Singh, Rahul Pandey, Ashutosh Upadhyay, Rajshekhar Rao, Amit Gupta, Muskan Nagpal, Kshitij Vaubhav, Areeb Amanullah, Vishakha Gupta, Kaushik Choudhury, Chirag M. Shroff, Amrish Kumar, Sujata Kurdukar, Sravan Kumar Karanam, M. Harshini, G. Sushmita, Abhishek Atrey, Ishita Bist, Ambika Bhardwaj, Navneet Gupta, Mayuri Raghuvanshi, Vyom Raghuvanshi, Akanksha Rathore, Adarsh Upadhyay, Pallavi Kumari, Shashank Pachauri, D. K. Devesh, Milind Modi, Shashank Singh, Rajan Kumar, Ankit Singh, Umar Iqbal Khan, Mukesh Kumar Maroria, Vinayak Sharma, Padmesh Mishra, Daya Krishan Sharma, Rohit Vats, Shubham Rana, Shubhangi Nasa, Kunal Vajani, Kunal Mimani, Prashant Alai, Preetika Dwivedi, Abhisek Mohanty, Mahesh Thakur, Satyajeet Kumar, Prashant Shukla, Suyash Srivastava, Abhishek Tiwari, Giridhar Upadhayay, Vivek Sharma, Siddharth R Gupta, Mrigank Prabhakar, Aman Agarwal, Uddaish Palya, Siddharth Sahu, Astha Singh, Raj Bahadur Yadav, Rajeeva Ranjan Rajesh, Suvesh Kumar, Satish Pandey, Abdul Qadir, Bandana Rai, Netasha Thukral, Nafis A. Siddiqui, Jai Jaimini Pandey, Braj Kishore Mishra, Harshika Tiwari, Sarveshwar Singh, Aravindh S., Jyotika Sharma, Enakshi Mukhopadhyay Siddhanta, Rao Raj Bahadur Singh, R. Murugaiyan, Vedant Mishra, Shaji J Kodankandath, Smita Amratlal Vora, Hemant Gupta, Samar Vijay Singh, Payal Gupta, Sabarni Som, Rony John, Aman Dev Sharma, Gaj Singh, Soumyadeep Chatterjee, Aarti Harish Bhandari, Rajat Sinha Roy, Jaideep Gupta, Kunal Chatterji, Maitrayee Banerjee, Rohit Bansal, Varij Nayan Mishra, Abhishek Yadav, Mahfooz Ahsan Nazki, Santosh Krishnan, Niranjan Sahu, Shivangi Gupta, Vishakha, Aswathi M.k., Anando Mukherjee, Smarhar Singh, Shweta Kumari, Dhananjaya Kumar Tyagi, Mohd Asim, Pankaj Prakash, Jai Krishna Singh, Raghvendra Kumar, Anil Kumar Mishra-i, Amit Sharma, Dipesh Sinha, Pallavi Barua, Aparna Singh, Pukhrambam Ramesh Kumar, Karun Sharma, Anupama Ngangom, Rajkumari Divyasana, Astha Sharma, Radhika Gautam, Amit Anand Tiwari, Sabarish Subramanian, Devyani Gupta, Saushriya Havelia A, Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Tanvi Anand, Danish Saifi, Ankita Sharma, Arjun D Singh, Ishika Neogi, Venkata Raghuvamsy D., Dilip Annasaheb Taur, Sandeep Sudhakar Deshmukh, Mayur Saavarkar, Pai Amit, Pankhuri Bhardwaj, Abhiydaya Vats, Merin Francis, Bhavana Duhoon, Akshay Girish Ringe, Kartikeya Rastogi, Inder Deep Kaur Raina, Tamanna Kavdia, Vinod Sharma, Sumeer Sodhi, Rajiv Ranjan Dwivedi, Namita Choudhary, Apoorv Kurup, Nidhi Mittal, Shuvodeep Roy, Saurabh Tripathi, Deepayan Dutta, Sahil Tagotra, Shreya Kasera, Rakesh Talukdar, Neeraj Kr.sharma, Kanu Agrawal, Vatsal Joshi, Mukesh Kumar Verma, Piyush Beriwal, Harish Pandey, Krishna Kant Dubey, Shashwat Parihar, Shreekant Neelappa Terdal, Santosh Ramdurg, S. Gowthaman, D. L. Chidananda, Som Raj Choudhury, Maninder Acharya, K. Enatoli Sema, Amit Kumar Singh, Chubalemla Chang, Prang Newmai, Yanmi Phazang, Siddharth Sangal, Maibam Nabaghanashyam Singh, Ahanthem Henry, Ahanthem Rohen Singh, Mohan Singh, Aniket Rajput, Khoisnam Nirmala Devi, Yeshu Mehta, Tanay Hegde, Kumar Mihir, Asmita Singh, Ankita Makan, Sunny Choudhary, Sanjai Kumar Pathak, Shashi Pathak, Arvind Kumar Tripathi, Shweta Singh, Nishe Rajen Shonker, Anu K Joy, Alim Anvar, Santhosh K, Devika A.l., Manju Jetley, Manish Kumar, Divyansh Mishra, Kumar Saurav, Gunnam Venkateswara Rao, Chanchal Kumar Ganguli, Deepanwita Priyanka, Satyalipsu Ray, Deepak Singh, Shishir Kumar Jha, Priyal Sheth, Amit Kumar, Avijit Mani Tripathi, Aditya S. Pandey, T.k. Nayak, Aditya Kumar, Ramesh Babu M. R., Manisha Ambwani
The Supreme Court has referred the issue regarding the criteria for determining seniority in the Higher Judicial Services cadre to a Constitution Bench for definitive resolution.
Headnote:(A) Constitution Bench - Question of law - Seniority in Higher Judicial Services - The Court framed the question: “What should be the criteria for determining seniority in the cadre of Higher Judicial Services” - Ancillary issues to be considered. (Para 2, 3)
Facts of the case:
This matter concerns an ongoing writ petition filed by the All India Judges Association against the Union of India, specifically involving applications for intervention and impleadment in relation to determining seniority within the Higher Judicial Services cadre.
Findings of Court:
Intervention/impleadment applications were allowed. The Court directed the parties to file written submissions by 27.10.2025, appointed nodal counsel to manage arguments, and scheduled the hearing for 28.10.2025 and 29.10.2025.
Issues: The main issue is the establishment of clear criteria for determining seniority in the cadre of Higher Judicial Services.
Ratio Decidendi: To resolve complex seniority disputes within the cadre of Higher Judicial Services, a formal frame of reference is necessary to ensure consistent application of law.
Result: Matter listed for hearing on 28.10.2025.
| Table of Content |
|---|
| 1. constitution bench referral regarding criteria for seniority in higher judicial services. (Para 1 , 2 , 3) |
| 2. procedural directions for filing submissions and scheduling arguments. (Para 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11) |
[ONLY I.A. NO. 230675/2025 FOR DIRECTIONS IS LISTED UNDER THIS ITEM]
IA No. 230675/2025 - APPROPRIATE ORDERS/DIRECTIONS
UPON hearing the counsel the Court made the following ORDER
I.A. NO. 230675/2025
1. All the applications seeking interventions/impleadments filed till today are allowed.
2. We frame the following question for consideration by the Constitution Bench:-
“What should be the criteria for determining seniority in the cadre of Higher Judicial Services”
3. Needless to state that while considering the aforesaid issue, we shall also consider other ancillary or related issues.
4. The parties shall file their written submissions on or prior to 27.10.2025.
5. Ms. Mayuri Raghuvanshi, learned counsel, would act as a Nodal Counsel on behalf of those parties, who are supporting the prayers made in the application.
6. Mr. Manu Krishnan, learned counsel, would act as a Nodal Counsel on behalf of the parties, who are opposing the prayers made in the application.
7. The parties supporting the prayers made in the application will be heard on 28.10.2025 and the parties opposing the prayers made in the application will be heard on 29.10.2025.
8. The Nodal Counsel, in consultation with the Senior Counsel or the Counsel arguing on behalf of the parties, shall arrange the time schedule amongst the counsel so that the arguments on each of the side can be concluded within the time allotted to them.
9. We clarify that the time schedule should be scrupulously followed and the Counsel for the parties should make an endeavour to complete their arguments within the time allotted to them.
10. The parties shall follow the Circular issued by the Registry on 03rd April, 2024, while making compilation of the volumes; and other miscellaneous directions.
11. List on 28.10.2025.
