- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) These appeals, by special leave, arise from the judgment and final orders of the High Court of Delhi dated 06.07.2006 and 23.03.2007 in R.F.A. No. 178 of 2006 and in C.M. No. 13584 of 2006 in R.F.A. No. 178 of 2006 respectively whereby the High Court declined to expunge the adverse remarks made against the appellant. The appellant, who is a Judicial Officer, is now challenging the judgment dated 06.07.2006 of the High Court to the limited extent whereby the Division Bench passed certain adverse remarks against him.
(3.) The case of the appellant is briefly stated hereunder: (a) The appellant, who is a Member of the Delhi Higher Judicial Service, posted as Addl. District and Sessions Judge, Delhi, was transferred in the place of Shri Satnam Singh, Addl. District and Sessions Judge on 13.09.2005. A suit for recovery which was filed in the year 1984 in the Delhi High Court by the first respondent against second respondent herein, subsequently on enhancement of the pecuniary jurisdiction of the Delhi High Court, was transferred to the District Court. (b) As sufficient opportunities were given to the plaintiff to lead evidence, the appellant, on 19.12.2005, dismissed the suit of the plaintiff. Thereafter, an appeal was filed by the plaintiff against the said judgment and the High Court, by the impugned judgment dated 06.07.2006, allowed the appeal of the plaintiff and remanded the case to the trial Court. The High Court, while remanding the case, made certain remarks and directions against the appellant. When the file of the aforesaid suit was put up before the appellant for retrial, then only he noticed the adverse remarks made against him by the High Court. The appellant immediately filed an application in the High Court for expunction of the aforesaid remarks. The High Court, by order dated 23.03.2007, disposed of the application stating that the remarks are only corrective in nature and do not suggest any lack of integrity on the part of the officer. (c) The Annual Confidential Report (in short "ACR") of the appellant from the years 2000 to 2006 has been consistently graded as B+ and the High Court has promoted him to the Super-time Scale also. The ACR for the year 2006 was communicated to him on 21.08.2007. On the basis of his service record w.e.f. 12.09.2007 he had assigned much more responsible and onerous task of presiding as a Designated Judge/Special Judge, NDPS, Patiala House Court, New Delhi for conducting the trial of NDPS cases. The High Court, vide letter dated 01.08.2008, has communicated to the appellant the ACR for the year 2007 which has been downgraded from B+ to B. Therefore, he submitted his representation to the High Court for review of the said ACR. He reliably came to know that the said ACR has been downgraded on the basis of the remarks in the judgment dated 06.07.2006 passed in R.F.A. No. 178 of 2006. To the best knowledge of the appellant, there is no report or complaint about his work or conduct by anyone in the year 2007. If the said remarks in the judgment dated 06.07.2006 are not expunged, it would affect his future prospects and if the same are allowed to stay and the ACR is not re-casted, the appellant would suffer substantial loss in future as he has left with eight years of service for superannuation and he is in the zone of consideration for elevation to the Bench of the Delhi High Court.;