Civil Appeal No 2059 of 1974
Appeal by special leave from the Judgment and order dated the 10th June 1974 of the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Writ Petition No 895 Of 1974 621 PA Chowdhary and K Rajendra Chaudhury for the appellant
P Ram Reddy and P P Rao for respondent No 1
A V Rangam and A Subhashini for respondent No 2
G Narasimhulu for respondents Nos 3 5 and 6
G N Rao for respondent No 4
A V K Rao the intervener appeared in person
The Judgment of the Court was delivered by UNTWALIA J
In this appeal by special leave we are once again called upon to lay down the meaning and scope of Article 233 of the Constitution of India relating to the appointment of District Judges
This Article alongwith other Articles in Chapter VI of Part VI of the Constitution came up for consideration and was interpreted by this Court on several occasions in the past yet a Bench of the High Court of Andhra Pradesh in its judgment under appeal felt persuaded to take a wholly erroneous view as to the meaning of the Article and committed a serious error in the application of the principles of law settled by this Court to the facts of the instant case
We shall state the facts in a narrow compass shorn of unnecessary details
On 3 1 1972 the Government of Andhra Pradesh respondent No 1 was requested by the High Court respondent No 2 to take necessary steps for filling up six vacancies by notifying six posts of District and Sessions Judges Grade II for direct recruitment
 By a DO letter dated 14 9 1972 the first respondent informed the second respondent that the six vacancies were being notified for direct recruitment
They were actually notified in the Gazette of that date
With the approval of the High Court an advertisement was published on 1 8 1972 in the Deccan Chronicle
The total number of applications received in response to the advertisement was 381
Twenty six applications were found to be not in order and rejected
The remaining 355 candidates were called by the High Court for interview
92 did not turn up and the remaining 263 were interviewed by the Selection Committee of the High Court on various dates
Shri A Panduranga Rao the sole appellant in this appeal was one of the candidates interviewed on 14 6 1973
The High Court eventually made its recommendations in its DO letter dated 13 7 1973 recommending in order of merit six persons as most suitable candidates from among the applicants for being appointed as District and Sessions Judges Grade II
 This letter was written by the Registrar of the High Court as directed by the Hon ble the Chief Justice and the Hon ble Judges of the Andhra Pradesh High Court
 The appellant s name was the fifth amongst the six names recommended
Although it is not very relevant to say so just to complete the link in the chain of relevant events it may be stated here that the recommendations made by the High Court seems to have leaked out
Whoever might have been responsible for this leakage it was all the same a very unfortunate thing
This led the Bar Association City Civil Court Hyderabad and the High Court Bar Association to pass certain 622 resolutions and to send certain memoranda to the Government even to the extent of making some adverse comments against some of the persons recommended by the High Court for appointment
On receipt of the same Government wrote a DO letter to the High Court on 24 7 1973 expressing surprise at the leakage of secret information but at the same time inviting the High Court to send its comments
The High Court sent a detailed reply and comments in its Do
letter dated 26 7 1973 pointing out that the leakage of the secret information could not be possible at the High Court end
It is not necessary for us to advert to the comments or resolutions of the Bar Associations or the views of the High Court expressed in its letter dated 26 7 1974
We now come to the relevant letters in question
A Do
letter dated 26 7 1973 was written by the Government to the High Court with reference to the latter s letter of recommendation dated 13 7 1973
We may point out here that this letter dated 26 7 1973 was written by the Government without any reference to and in all probability before the receipt of the High Court s letter dated 26 7 1973 in reply to the Government s of 24 7 1973
In the Government s letter dated 26 7 1973 attention of the High Court was invited to Instruction 125 of the Secretariat instructions and a request was made to send the list of persons whom the High Court considered to have reasonable claims to the appointment or suitable therefore the posts of District and Sessions Judges Grade II alongwith remarks regarding the qualifications and claims of the several persons in the list
 It may be stated here that as usual the correspondence was going on between the Chief Secretary on behalf of the Government and the Registrar on behalf of the High Court
The latter in reply to the former s letter dated 26 7 1973 sent the following reply on 1 8 1973 Your letter reached me on 28 7 1973
With reference to your above letter dated 26 7 1973 I have been directed to forward the entire list of the candidates interviewed by the High Court with the marks obtained by them
the High Court has no further remarks to offer
All the applications of the candidates sent by you are returned separately
 Thereupon the Government wrote Do letter dated 30 11 1973 to the Chief Justice of the High Court intimating that Government had decided to select the six candidates mentioned in that letter for filling up the six vacancies
Out of the persons so selected two were those who had been recommended by the High Court alongwith four others in its letter dated 13 7 1973
They were serials 1 and 4
Four out of the six were not appointed and in their place as it appears treating the entire list of 263 as a list recommended by the High Court in order of merit persons at serials 9 12 13 and 16 were selected by the Government for appointment
And finally orders appointing the six persons so selected were issued on 7 12 1973
Several writ applications were filed in the High Court to challenge the appointments made by the Government
We are in this appeal concerned with the judgment of the High Court dismissing the Writ Petition No 8951974 filed by the appellant to challenge the appointment of only four viz respondents 3 to 6 and the non appointment of the appellant
His case was that respondents 3 to 623 6 were appointed in violation of the constitutional provision contained in Article 233 and that he was not appointed on grounds which are unsustainable in law
The High Court has taken the view that the appointments have been made by the Government consistent with the requirement of Article 2332 out of the entire list of 263 recommended by the High Court
The appellant s claim on merits for appointment to the post has not found favour with the High Court
In the view which we take as to the violation of Article 233 in this case we would not like nor is it necessary to do so to examine the claim of the appellant for appointment in one of the six vacancies
It would be convenient to read once again Article 233 of the Constitution
 1 Appointments of persons to be and the posting and promotion of district judges in any State shall be made by the Governor of the State in consultation with the High Court exercising jurisdiction in relation to such State
2 A person not already in the service of the Union or of the State shall only be eligible to be appointed a district judge if he has been for not less than seven years an advocate or a pleader and is recommended by the High Court for appointment
 As pointed out at page 89 by this Court in Chandra Mohan vs State of Uttar Pradesh  Ors 1 There are two sources of recruitment namely 1 service of the Union or of the State and ii members of the Bar
The said judges from the first source are appointed in consultation with the High Court and those from the second source are appointed on the recommendation of the High Court
 A candidate for direct recruitment from the Bar does not become eligible for appointment without the recommendation of the High Court
He becomes eligible only on such recommendation under clause 2 of article 233
The High Court in the judgment under appeal felt some difficulty in appreciating the meaning of the word recommend
But the literal meaning given in the Concise oxford Dictionary is quite simple and apposite
It means suggest as fit for employment In case of appointment from the Bar it is not open to the Government to choose a candidate for appointment until and unless his name is recommended by the High Court
The recommendation of the High Court for filling up the six vacancies was contained in its letter dated 13 7 1973
Government was not bound to accept all the recommendations but could tell the High Court its reasons for not accepting the High Court s recommendations in regard to certain persons
If the High Court agreed with the reasons in case of a particular person the recommendation in his case stood with drawn and there was no question of appointing him
Even if the High 1 624 Court did not agree the final authority was the Government in the matter of appointment and for good reasons it could reject the High Court s recommendations
In either event it could ask the High Court to make more recommendations in place of those who have been rejected
But surely it was wrong and incompetent for the Government to write a letter like the one dated 26 7 1973 inviting the High Court s attention to Instruction 125 of the Secretariat instructions and on the basis of that to ask it to send the list of persons whom the High Court considered to have reasonable claims to the appointment
On the basis of the furore created by two Bar Associations of Hyderabad and the High Court s letter dated 26 7 1973 written in reply to the Government s letter dated 24 7 1973 no person s candidature recommended by the High Court had been rejected when the letter dated 26 7 1973 was written by the Government
Even after rejection the Government could not ask the High Court to send the list of all persons whom the High Court considered to have reasonable claim to the appointment We feel distressed to find that instead of pointing out the correct position of law to the Government and itself acting according to it a letter hike the one dated 1 8 1973 was sent by the High Court in reply to the Government s letter dated 26 7 1973
It is not clear from this letter whether it was written under the direction of the Chief Justice alone or under the directions of Chief Justice and the other Judges of the High Court as in the case of the letter dated 13 7 1973
But surely it was very much wrong on the part of the High Court to forward the entire list of the candidates interviewed with the marks obtained by them and adding at the same time that the High Court had no further remarks to offer
We could not understand the reason for writing such a letter by the High Court
But if we may hazard a surmise it seems to have been written in utter disgust at the Government s unreasonable attitude displayed in its letter dated 26 7 1973
By no means could it be nor was it a recommendation by the High Court of all there 263 candidates interviewed that all of them had a reasonable claim or in other words were fit to be appointed District Judges
We must express our displeasure at and disapproval of all that happened between the Government and the High Court in the former writing the letter dated 26 7 1973 and the letter sending the reply dated 1 8 1973
Then comes the letter dated 30 11 1973
After tracing the history of the recommendation made by the High Court in its letter dated l 3 7 1973 and in the light of the further information about these candidates as required from High Court Government decided to select the six candidates mentioned therein including respondents 3 to 6 as if they were from the list recommended by the High Court 
It was further stated in this letter Reasons for not selecting candidates placed by the High Court higher than those now selected are given in the annexure enclosed to this Do letter
 The High Court to be more accurate the Chief Justice to whom the letter dated 30 11 1973 was addressed seems to have not resented or protested against the selection so made by the Government in clear violation of Article 233 of the Constitution
We find it intriguing that the letter written by the Registrar of the High Court on 1 8 1973 was treated as a recommendation of all the 263 candidates as having been found fit for appointment as District Judges
By no means could it be so
It was not so
And yet the High Court or the 625 Chief Justice did not object to the appointment of respondents 3 to 6 as District Judges
They were not eligible to be so appointed as their names had never been recommended
In the result we allow this appeal and set aside the judgment of the High Court
The writ application filed by the appellant succeeds only to this extent that the appointments of respondents 3 to 6 are quashed
The four posts manned by them are declared vacant
There will be no order as to costs
PBR Appeal allowed


Summary:
Under Article 2332 of the Constitution a person not already in service of the Union or of the State shall only be eligible to be appointed a District Judge if he has been for not less than 7 years an advocate or pleader and is recommended by the High Court for appointment
After interviewing a large number of candidates to fill six posts of District Judges the High Court recommended six persons as the most suitable candidates from among the applicants
The appellant was one of  them
This recommendation having leaked out the Government requested the High Court to send a list of persons whom the High Court considered to have reasonable claims to the appointment The High Court sent the entire list of the candidates interviewed by it with the marks obtained by them but without offering any remarks
Treating the entire list of candidates sent by the High Court as candidates recommended by it in the order of merit respondents 3 to 6 were selected in addition to two candidates earlier recommended by the High Court
The appellant s name did not find place in the final list
He therefore moved the High Court contending that respondents 3 to 6 were appointed in violation of the provisions contained in article 233
The High Court dismissed the petition holding that the entire list of the candidates should be taken as recommended by the High Court
Allowing the appeal to this Court  HELD In the case of appointment of District Judges from the Bar it is not open to the Government to choose a candidate for appointment unless and until this name is recommended by the High Court
The word recommend  means suggest as rut for employment 2 The Government was not bound to accept all the recommendations made by the High Court but could tell the High Court its reasons for not accepting its recommendations in regard to certain persons
If the High Court agreed with the reasons in case of a particular person the recommendation in his case stood withdrawn and there was no question of appointing him
But it was certainly wrong and incompetent for the Government to write to the High Court and ask it to send the list of persons whom it considered to have reasonable claim to the appointment
It was very much wrong on the part of the High Court to forward the entire list of the candidates interviewed with the marks obtained by them and adding at the same time that the High Court had no further remarks to offer The reply sent by the High Court was by no means a recommendation of the High Court of all the candidates interviewed that all of them had reasonable claims or in other words were fit to be appointed as District Judges
623 H 624 B D E Chandra Mohan vs State of Uttar Pradesh  Ors  referred to 3 Respondents 3 to 6 were not eligible to be appointed as District Judges as their names had never been recommended by the High Court
625 A