Judicial Dictionary
One should not lose sight of the important fact that appointment to the judicial office cannot be equated with the appointment to the executive or other services. in a recent judgment in All India Judges’ Association v. Union of India JT 1993 (4) SC 618 renderd by a three Judges Bench presided over by M. N. Venkatachaliah, C. J. and consisting of A. M. Ahmadi and P. B. Sawant, JJ. the following observations are made:
“………..The judicial service is not service in the sense of ‘employment’. The Judges are not employees. As members of the judiciary, they exercise the sovereign judicial power of the State. They are holders of public offices in the same way as the members of the council of ministers and the members of the legislature. When it is said that in a democracy such as ours, the executive, the legislature and the judiciary constitute the three pillars of the State, that is intended to be conveyed is that the three essential functions of the State are entrusted to the three organs of the State and each one of them in turn represents the authority of the State. However, those who exercise the State-power are the ministers, the legislators and the judges, and not the members of their staff who implement or assist in implementing their decisions. The council of ministers or the political executive is different from the secretarial staff or the administrative executive which carries out the decisions of the political executive.
Similarly, the legislators are different from the legislative staff. So also the judges from the judicial staff. The parity is between the political executive, the legislators and the Judges and not between the Judges and the adminstrative executive. In some democracies like the U.S.A., members of some State judiciaries are elected as much as the members of the legislature and the heads of the State. The Judges, at whatever level they may be, represent the State and its authority unlike the administrative executive or the members of other services.
The members of the other services, therefore, cannot be placed on par with the members of the judiciary, either constitutionally or functionally ……………………………………………….It is high time that all concerned appreciated that for the reasons pointed out above there cannot be any link between the service conditions of the judges and those of the members of the other services………………………………………………………………………….As pointed out earlier, the parity in status is no longer between the judiciary and the administrative executive but between the judiciary and the political executive. Under the Constitution, the judiciary is above the administrative executive and any attempt to place it on par with the administrative executive has to be discouraged.”
(Emphasis supplied)