Both serving and retired Group A officers eligible to be appointed Special Metropolitan Magistrates: Delhi High Court

The Delhi High Court has held that both serving and retired officers who have held Group A posts for at least five years and have law degrees are eligible for appointment as Special Metropolitan Magistrates (SMM) [Abdul Aleem v High Court of Delhi and Ors]..A Division Bench of Justices C Hari Shankar and Om Prakash Shukla said that Section 18(1) of the Code of Criminal Procedure, the Delhi Petty Offence (Trial by Special Metropolitan Magistrate) Rules, 1998, the online manual for application to the post and the application form make it clear that the opportunity to apply for SMM posts is available to both serving as well retired officers. “The position as it emerges from Section 18(1) of the CrPC and Rules 3 and 4 of the 1988 Rules, as we have already noted, is that (i) persons who were, on 23 September 2023, holding Group-A posts under the Government of NCT of Delhi or the Central Government, and had held such posts for five years, as well as (ii) persons who had retired from Group-A posts under the Central Government or Government of NCT of Delhi after having held such posts for five years, were both eligible to apply for appointment as SMM,” the Court held. .The Bench made the observation while dealing with a plea filed by Abdul Aleem, retired Director (Prosecution), challenging the selection of six candidates as SMMs under the advertisement issued on August 25, 2023. Aleem argued that the selected candidates were serving officers at the time of the cut-off date of September 23, 2023, even though, as per the rules, only retired officers were eligible. He pointed to aspects of the online application form and user manual, which indicated mandatory fields for ‘retirement certificate’ and ‘date of retirement’..After considering the case, the Bench said that even if there was an asterisk against the fields which dealt with retirement indicating that those fields were mandatory, it only meant that retired officers, who applied, had to fill up those fields. “It did not indicate that the opportunity to apply was restricted to retired officers,” the Court added. Therefore, it rejected Aleem’s petition and refused to set aside the appointment of six SMMs. .Advocate Santosh appeared for petitioner Abdul Aleem. Advocates Dr Amit George. Dushyant Kishan Kaul, Arkaneil Bhaumik, Adhishwar Suri, Rupam Jha, Medhavi Bhatia, Ibansara, and Kartikey Sharma represented the Delhi High Court. The selected candidates were represented through advocates Man Mohan Goel, Kiran Saini, Kusum Saini and Alpana Pandey. .[Read Order]