All India Judges Association vs Union of India - 2025 INSC 1328 - Higher Judicial Service - Determination Of Seniority - 4-Point Roster
Judicial Service - Determination of seniority within the cadre of Higher Judicial Services (HJS) recruited as (i) Regular Promotees (RP); (ii) those promoted through the Limited Departmental Competitive Examinations (LDCE); and (iii) Direct Recruits (DR) - Continuous length of service ought to be the criterion for determining inter se seniority in the HJS, subject to the further condition that all appointees in a single recruitment year are placed against their respective annual roster points, regardless of the actual date of appointment.(Para 81) - Career progression to the higher echelons of the judiciary is neither a matter of right nor of entitlement.(Para 52) - The seniority of officers within the HJS shall be determined through an annual 4-point roster, filled by all officers appointed in the particular year in the repeating sequence of 2 RPs, 1 LDCE, and 1 DR- Only if the recruitment process is completed within the year after which it was initiated and no other appointments, from any of the three sources, have already taken place in respect of the recruitment initiated for that subsequent year, shall the officers belatedly so appointed be entitled to seniority as per the roster of the year in which recruitment was initiated- If the recruitment process is not initiated for vacancies arising in a given year in the same year, the candidate filling such vacancy, in subsequent recruitment, shall be granted seniority within the annual roster of the year in which the recruitment process is finally concluded and appointment is made - After the recruitment of DRs and LDCEs is complete for a particular year, the positions falling in their quota that remain unfilled due to lack of suitable candidates shall be filled through RPs, subject to such RPs being placed only on subsequent RP positions in the annual roster; and the vacancies in the subsequent year shall be computed so as to apply the proportion of 50:25:25 to the entire cadre- The statutory rules governing the HJS in the respective States, in consultation with the High Courts, shall prescribe the exact modalities of the Annual Roster and how the directions of this judgement shall be implemented. (Para 100)
Case Info
; Constitution Bench; November 19, 2025
Case Details
- Case name: All India Judges Association and Ors. vs Union of India and Ors.
- Neutral citation: 2025 INSC 1328
- Coram: B.R. Gavai, CJI; Surya Kant, J.; Vikram Nath, J.; K. Vinod Chandran, J.; Joymalya Bagchi, J.
- Judgment date: November 19, 2025
Caselaws and Citations
- Rejanish K.V. v K. Deepa — 2025 SCC OnLine SC 2196
- All India Judges’ Association v. Union of India (First AIJA) — (1992) 1 SCC 119
- All India Judges’ Association v. Union of India (Second AIJA) — (1993) 4 SCC 288
- All India Judges’ Association v. Union of India (Third AIJA) — (1994) SCC 314
- All India Judges’ Association v. Union of India (Fourth AIJA) — (2002) 4 SCC 247
- R.K. Sabharwal v. State of Punjab — (1995) 2 SCC 745
- All India Judges Assn. v. Union of India (Fifth AIJA) — (2010) 15 SCC 170
- All India Judges Association v. Union of India (Sixth AIJA) — 2025 SCC OnLine SC 1184
- B.S. Yadav v. State of Haryana — (1980) Supp SCC 524
- State of Bihar v. Bal Mukund Sah — (2000) 4 SCC 640
- Malik Mazhar Sultan (3) v. U.P. Public Service Commission — (2008) 17 SCC 703
- R. Poornima v. Union of India — (2023) 12 SCC 519
- Mervyn Coutindo v. Collector of Customs — (1966) 3 SCR 600
- Roshan Lal Tandon v. Union of India — (1968) 1 SCR 185
- State of J&K v. Triloki Nath Khosa — (1974) 1 SCC 19
- Direct Recruit Class II Engineering Officers’ Assn. v. State of Maharashtra — (1990) 2 SCC 715
- State of West Bengal v. Aghore Nath Dey — (1993) 3 SCC 371
- Ram Janam Singh v. State of Uttar Pradesh — (1994) 2 SCC 622
- Union of India v. N.R. Parmar — (2012) 13 SCC 340
- K. Meghachandra Singh v. Ningam Siro — (2020) 5 SCC 689
- Hariharan v. Harsh Vardhan Singh Rao — 2022 SCC OnLine SC 1717
- M. Subba Reddy v. A.P. SRTC — (2004) 6 SCC 729
Statutes / Constitutional Provisions Referred
- Articles 233 to 235 of the Constitution of India (control and superintendence of subordinate judiciary; appointment of District Judges)
- Article 309 and its proviso (rule-making for recruitment and conditions of service)
- Articles 14 and 16 (equality and equal opportunity in public employment)
- Articles 32, 141, 142 (judicial review; binding precedent; complete justice)
