Assessment of units to be awarded for disposal of cases by officers of West Bengal Judicial Service(2013)

DATE: 22.02.2013

Consideration of Points on Disposal of a Case

The following points may also be taken into consideration:

1. The performance of a Civil Judge (Sr. Divn.) may be assessed ‘Good’ provided he has disposed of 3 Suits and 1 Appeal on average in a month and also secured the requisite proposed units, that is 5.6 units/ day and for the “ Very Good” performance of such Officer is to dispose of at least 4 Suits and 1 Appeal on average in a month and also to secure the proposed 6.3 units per day. Similarly for the outstanding performance, such Officer is to disposed of at least 5 Suits and appeal on average in a month and also secure the proposed 7 units per day.

2. In case of a Civil Judge (Jr. Divn.), his performance may be assessed ‘Good’ provided he disposed of at least four suits on average in a month and also secures the proposed requisite units 5.6 units/day and for ‘Very Good’ performance such Officer should dispose of at least 5 suits on average in a month and also secures the proposed 6.3 units/day. Similarly, for outstanding performances such officer should dispose of at least 6 suits on an average in a month and also secure the proposed 7 units/day.

3. In the case the Trial Courts of the District do not find adequate number of cases for disposal to achieve the required units for gradation or to assess their performance, the fact of inadequate number of files of the concerned court should be brought to the notice of the District Judge for taking action by way of transfer of the cases to the same Court. 

4. Some contest should not be counted as contested. If detected, 6 units per case will be deducted and Officer will be visited with adverse remarks.

5. Attempts should be made to dispose of all types of matters.

6. Officer graded (‘Very Good’), ‘Uniformly’ or ‘Frequently’ and ‘Outstanding’, may be considered for good posting out of turn.

7. Copies of units of assessment be served upon the members of the Judicial Services.

8. Nothing stated above will take away or abridge the power of the High Court to relax the above assessment in particular deserving cases.

**9. An officer making over or taking over charge of a Court having employed less than 30 working days in a quarter and is unable to secure or achieve the required units for gradation will not be visited with adverse remarks as regards quantity of work for the said quarter, but if he is able to secure the require units in spite of employing less than 30 working days, he will be graded according to the prescribed norms. In such case, no officer will be graded below “Adequate”.

**10. If the principal types of cases pending in any of the courts are less than 50% per centum of the prescribed number of cases, and if the officer presiding over any such Court is unable to earn the required units for gradation due to lack of pendency of cases he will not be visited with adverse remarks as regards quantity of work at the time of gradation or assessment of his performance in the ACR if the officer concerned, through the District Judge, submits a report regarding the number of pendency of cases and the District Judge concerned shall forward such report with his comments on the matter to the Hon’ble Court. The Registrar concerned, at the time of assessment of performance of the Judicial Officer concerned shall draw the attention of the Hon’ble Judge-in-Charge of the district to the said report and the comments of the District Judge.

***11. Analogous suits disposed of by a common judgement has to be treated as one disposal of suit.

***12.  If Civil suit and counter claim are tried together and disposed of by a common judgement, no unit can be claimed separately for the counter claim.

Also Resolved

1. It is also resolved that all members of West Bengal Judicial Service be informed about the units and the Grade for their guidance.

2. In all cases quality of the judgement has to be commensurate with the gradation based on the units.

3. In a case where the learned officer earns points which could have been assessed in the ACRs as OUTSTANDING, however, ultimately if it is found at the time of annual assessment that in one quarter he failed to dispose of the contested cases as per norms – “GOOD”, “VERY GOOD”, “OUTSTANDING” than he shall be graded as “GOOD”. While placing the final ACR sheet for the respective year the Department should not give any “Gradation corresponding to Average unit”.

4. Quarterly assessment of every judicial officer has to be done strictly in accordance with the prescribed norm as amended. It may so happen that one officer might have secured “Units” for him/her graded “Outstanding”, “Very Good” etc. but if the concerned officer failed to fulfil the contested disposal criteria then such officer may be placed in the subsequent grade where he may be fixed, as per the “Contested Disposal Criteria”.

5. As regards the Principal Magistrate, Juvenile Justice Board of other districts excepting Juvenile Justice Board, Howrah, no Judicial Officer has been deputed in a full-fledged manner. Such an officer with the nomenclature Principal Magistrate, Juvenile Justice Board is manned by the district judiciary but he performs such duties as the Principal Magistrate only in the second half.  The concerned Magistrate shall give his disposal in two separate sheets – one for the regular Court and other for the Juvenile Justice Board to the District Judge who shall assess such statements in a combined manner and record his comments and forward the same to the High Court. The units will be calculated in the same manner like that of a Judicial Magistrate. However, in case which are ordinarily triable by the Court of Session, the Principal Magistrate will earn 10 units for disposal of each such case and also 6 units more for recordings evidence of witnesses. In case of the officer posted as Principal Magistrate, Juvenile Justice Board in a full fledged manner will not be assessed below “Adequate” considering the less pendency of cases in the Board.

6. The officers in the rank of Civil Judge (Senior Division) in whose Court less than 20 appeals are pending must try to dispose of such appeals within a year.

7. While calculating the number of days employed, the days lost due to cease work by the Bar, or whether a resolution is adopted by the Bar not to pass any adverse remarks, or when the officer was on duty or any day lost either due to ‘Bandh’ or ‘Strike’, such loss of working days (not less than 10 days in a quarter) be deducted from the total number of working days of that court and be assessed proportionately.

8. That apart the actual days employed by an officer in a quarter will be taken into consideration for assessing proportionately the units earned keeping in mind the contested disposal criteria.

9. In case of Registrar posted in the District Courts, including City Civil Court and Presidency Small Cases Court, if such post is later on created for other districts, the officer will be graded as the District Judge may deem fit and proper considering his administrative ability. (A separate form has been prescribed by the Government to assess the working of its Secretaries and the same is adopted by this Court also).

10. The LROs will be assessed liberally taking into consideration how many witnesses he/she had examined employing how many days. But in no case the LROs will be assessed less than “ADEQUATE”.

11. In a case where an officer is posted in two Courts in a quarter under the same judgeship, the remarks shall be officer wise and not court wise.

12. The officer must indicate by furnishing a statement in a separate sheet while forwarding monthly/quarterly statements to the District Judge, the number of Title Suits or other Suits or GR Cases or Sessions Cases with particulars, which are five years or more old.

13. In evaluating and assessing a Judicial Officer, the strength of file of the concerned court must be taken into consideration. It is taken into consideration that in a court where the pendency is huge, naturally the Presiding Officer of such court will have an edge over the Presiding Officer of a court where pendency is meagre or less. There cannot be a straight jacket formula to assess a Judicial Officer with the number of contested disposals. In such case necessary discretion must be exercised by the High Court to assess a Judicial Officer.

14. As regards the units regarding contested disposal of petitions, the statement must indicate the nature of such disposal to assess whether the disposal was substantial or not.

15. For civil cases if the total number is less than 100 and for criminal cases if the number is less than 200 in a particular Court then such courts may be treated as the court with non-adequate number of the cases. The officers presiding over such courts may not be assessed below ‘Adequate’.

16. At present there are 4 courts of Railway Magistrates that is at Howrah, Kharagpur, Ranaghat, New Jalpaiguri. The Railway Magistrate Court at Howrah, Ranaghat District Nadia, Kharagpur within the District of Paschim Medinipur and Railway Magistrate Court, New Jalpaiguri within the District of Jalpaiguri are running exclusively for that purpose. Considering the state of file in such Courts and the special duties such officers undertake, they may not be graded below “ADEQUATE’.  It may be noted that the Judicial Magistrate of Sealdah is also the Railway Magistrate of 4^th Court of Sealdah and in his case the said yardstick for those four officers will not be applicable.

17. While placing the final ACR sheet for the respective year, the department should not give any “Gradation corresponding to Average unit.”

** As per resolution of the Full Court Meeting dated 22.02.2013 under item no. 4.

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