- (1.) BY this writ petition the petitioner, who was compulsorily retired from the post of Additional District and Sessions Judge, Jaunpur, under Fundamental Rule 56 (c) by the order of the Appointing Authority, i. e. the Governor, dated 17-5-2005 (Annexure '12' to the writ petition), has challenged the said order.
(2.) COUNTER and rejoinder affidavits have been exchanged in this case. Undisputedly, the order of compulsory retirement was passed by the Governor on the report of a Screening Committee consisting of five Senior Judges of this Court. The report was approved in a Full Court meeting, and accordingly the recommendation was made to the Appointing Authority, i. e. the Governor, for compulsory retirement of the petitioner. Before entering into the facts justifying the compulsory retirement, as mentioned by respondent No. 2 in the counter affidavit, it may be stated here that the order of compulsory retirement is based on subjective satisfaction of the Authority, in this case the High Court, as has been repeatedly held by the Supreme Court, and the scope of judicial scrutiny in such matters under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is limited to cases where the compulsory retirement order is (a) mala fide, or (b) based on no evidence, or (c) arbitrary in the sense that no reasonable person would form the requisite opinion on the given material, i. e. where the order is perverse. These principles have been spelt out in paragraph 34 of the case of Baikuntha Nath Das v. Chief District Medical Officer, (1992) 2 S. C. C. 299.
(3.) THE case of Baikuntha Nath Das (supra) also holds that even uncommunicated adverse remarks can be taken into consideration for deciding whether an employee should or should not be compulsorily retired. Compulsory retirement is not a punishment. It does not imply any stigma. THE dominant consideration is public interest and the object is to weed out the dead wood. The above law has been reiterated repeatedly by the Supreme Court several times and we do not consider it necessary to refer to all those decisions on that point which have been placed before us by both the sides.;