Supreme Court allows Madhya Pradesh HC to interview prospective civil judges

Time of India

3 days ago

The
Supreme Court
on Thursday allowed the
Madhya Pradesh High Court
to conduct interviews and declare results of the Civil Judge, Junior Division (Entry Level) Exam 2022.
A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and A S Chandurkar asked the high court to go ahead with the process after it was informed that 77 candidates had cleared the main civil judges exam.
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The top court passed the order after advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, appearing for the high court, said a re-exam was unconstitutional, impractical and would floodgates of
litigation
.
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The top court last year stayed a Madhya Pradesh High Court order restraining recruitment for the post of civil judges carried out without the mandatory requirement of three years of practice.
The Madhya Pradesh Judicial Services (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1994 were amended on June 23, 2023, to make three years of practice compulsory to be eligible to appear for the civil judge entry-level test in the state.
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The amended rules were upheld by the high court, but it started another round of litigation after two candidates who were not selected contended that they would be eligible if the amended rules were applied and demanded that the cut-off be reviewed.
While restraining the recruitment to the post, the high court directed the exclusion of successful candidates in the preliminary examination who did not fulfil the eligibility criteria under the
amended recruitment rules
.
The top court was hearing an appeal filed by the Madhya Pradesh High Court challenging the June 13, 2024 order passed by its division bench directing it to weed out or exclude all those successful candidates in the preliminary examination held on January 14, 2024, who did not fulfil the eligibility criteria under the amended rules.
In its appeal, the high court said the division bench failed to appreciate that the power to review a well-reasoned judgment is very limited and only open when there is a mistake and error apparent on the face of the record.
"It is submitted that the conducting of fresh main examination for specific candidates falling between earlier cut-off marks and re-computed cut-off marks in compliance of impugned order/judgment would result in a situation where there would be no level playing field," the appeal said.
An advertisement was issued on November 17, 2023, calling for applications from eligible law graduates under the amended recruitment rules.
The top court while hearing a challenge to the amended recruitment rules by an interim order permitted all law graduates to appear in the preliminary examination.
A division bench of the high court subsequently dismissed the petitions challenging the amendment and upheld the amended recruitment rules.
A petition was then filed by two persons claiming both were eligible under the amended recruitment rules and had appeared in the preliminary examination but could not make it to the main examination but a high court division bench dismissed their plea.
The two petitioners, Jyotsna Dohalia and Varsha Shrivastava, then filed a review plea on May 25, 2024, which was allowed and the high court restrained recruitment for the post of civil judge.
According to the amended Madhya Pradesh Judicial Service (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1994, three years of practice was a mandatory requirement to appear for judicial services examination at the civil judge level.
The amendment exempts outstanding law graduates who have secured at least 70 per cent marks in the general and Other Backward Class (OBC) categories from the mandatory requirement of three years of practice.
The division bench of the high court in its order had said that the cut-off marks shall be re-computed, upon the remaining candidates satisfying the criteria under amended recruitment rules.