NEW
DELHI: Justice can be delayed but not denied. And this time it was the turn of a
Judge to realise the bitter truth of the old adage, as it is normally the common
man who is at the receiving
end.
Eleven years after he was
demoted to a lower cadre a Full Bench of the Delhi High Court has ordered that
Judge M S Rohilla shall be deemed to have continued as a Member of the Delhi
Higher Judicial Service till the date he was compulsorily retired from service
on September 28, 2001.
The
Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Vijender Jain, A K Sikri and B N
Chaturvedi also ordered that Rohilla shall be entitled to all the financial and
pensionary benefits to which he may be entitled pursuant to the
order.
An erstwhile officer of
the Delhi Judicial Service, Rohilla, who was holding the rank of an Additional
District Judge was demoted to the rank of a civil judge by an administrative
order of the High Court on February 2,
1995.
Ironically, Rohilla's
representation challenging his demotion was rejected by a Full Court on
September 23, 1995.
Aggrieved
by the rejection, Rohilla filed a fresh petition before a Two-Member Bench which
referred the matter to a Full
Bench.
In his petition Rohilla
argued that his promotion to the Delhi High Judicial Service on November 29,
1989 was a regular promotion against a substantive vacancy and therefore he
could not have been reverted back to the Delhi Judicial service by a mere
administrative order of the High Court.