- (1.) Leave granted in each of the special leave petition.
(2.) These appeals, by the grant of special leave, are directed against common judgment dated May 2, 2008 rendered by the Division Bench of the High Court of Delhi in C.W.P. No. 2157 of 2002, C.W.P. No.1965 of 2002 and C.W.P. No.2362 of 2002. The appellants were the Members of Delhi Higher Judicial Service ( 'D.H.J.S.', for short). Mr. M.S.Rohilla and Mr. P.D.Gupta were compulsorily retired from service under Rule 56 (j) of the Fundamental Rules, read with Rule 33 of the Delhi Judicial Service Rules 1970, whereas deceased Mr. R.S.Verma was compulsorily retired from service under Rule 16(3) of All India Service (Death-cum-Retirement Benefit) Rules 1958 read with Rule 27 of the Delhi Higher Judicial Service Rules 1970, on different dates. They had challenged orders of their compulsory retirement from service by filing Writ Petitions under Article 226. Though the result of each appeal would depend on its own facts, having regard to the commonality of submissions on legal aspects, this Court had tagged these cases together and heard them one after the other. This Court proposes to dispose of the three appeals, by this common Judgment for the sake of avoiding repetitiveness of legal principles. However, the Court proposes to consider each case on its own merits. With these observations, the Court proposes to deal with appeal arising out of Special Leave to Appeal (Civil) No.27028 of 2008, filed by Mr. Rajendra Singh Verma against decision in C.W.P. No.2157 of 2002. Mr. Verma was born on April 13, 1950. After enrolling himself as an advocate, he had started legal practice in the year 1980. In the year 1994 applications were invited from practicing advocates for direct recruitment to the D.H.J.S. Mr. Verma had also applied pursuant to the said advertisement and after interview he was selected and was offered appointment to D.H.J.S. He joined the service on 9.3.1995 and was aged about 45 years on the date of joining service. He worked as Additional District Judge at Karkardooma Courts, Shahdara, Delhi. For the year 1995- 1996 he was given a 'B' remark in the A.C.R., which means his performance was average. From April 1, 1999 to December 7, 2000, he functioned as Sessions Judge, Tis Hazari, Delhi.
(3.) By the year 2000 he had rendered service of five years. It may be mentioned that a Screening Committee consisting of two Hon'ble Judges of Delhi High Court was constituted for screening the cases of those officers of the D.H.J.S. and Delhi Judicial Service, who had either completed thirty years of service or had attained the age of 50/55 years and for considering the question whether those Judicial Officers should be continued in service or should be prematurely retired in public interest. The Screening Committee considered the cases of several officers including that of Mr. Verma under Rule 56 (j) of the Fundamental Rules. The learned members of Screening Committee perused service record including the ACR dossiers of the Judicial Officers but did not find, for the time being, any Officer who could be retired prematurely in public interest as on July 17, 2000. A copy of the abstracts from the Minutes of the Meeting of the Full Court of Delhi High Court held on July 22, 2000 indicates that the Full Court had accepted the report of the Screening Committee. However, by an order dated December 7, 2000 which was served upon Mr. Verma on December 8, 2000, judicial work entrusted to him was withdrawn with immediate effect. He was made in-charge of all the record rooms in Tis Hazari Courts, Delhi. ACRs of four years i.e. from the year 1997 to the year 2000 were not communicated to him on due dates. From the record it is evident that ACRs of Mr. Verma for the years 1997, 1998 and 1999 were written in one go and he was awarded 'C ' remark, which means below average. The ACRs for above mentioned three years were communicated to him on January 8, 2001 whereupon he had made representation against the same on February 16, 2001. ;