Ex-judge challenges Act

By S A Ishaqui
Hyderabad, April 14:A former additional district sessions judge has challenged in the AP High Court an Act introduced by the state government to weed out inefficient judicial officers. Mr K. Veera Chary, who filed the petition, was the first to lose his job under the Act. He was removed from the post of additional district session judge of Mahbubnagar on the grounds that his work was below average.The HC has constituted a full bench headed by Justice V.V.S. Rao to hear the petition filed by Mr Veera Chary. The government had brought in Act 42 in 2006 by amending the AP Public Employment (regulation of age of superannuation) Act 1984. It incorporated provisions that any member of the AP State Higher Judicial Service or State Judicial Service can be asked to retire from the service in public interest on the date on which such member attains the age of 50 or 55 or 58 years or after having completed 33 years of service. According to the judicial authorities, the amendment was brought in to implement the Supreme Court directive to weed out inefficient and corrupt judicial officers. "Till the removal of Mr Veera Chary we were not fully aware of the Act," said a judicial officer. Under the Act, an administrative committee headed by the Chief Justice of the AP High Court periodically reviews the performance of judicial officers.
The committee took into account various factors including service profile, disposal of cases, quality of judgments and confidential records to assess performance. However, a majority of judicial officers are resentful of the Act since they feel it is being used to weed out those whom the authorities did not prefer.