Supreme Court for All India common test for selection of judges for lower courts

Source – indiatimes.com

NEW DELHI: Pushing for major judicial reforms meant to bring uniformity in selection process and to curb the practice of favouritism and nepotism in selection of judges in lower judiciary, the Supreme Court in principle decided to introduce a common test for selection of judges and sought suggestions from states and union territories on mode of implementing it.

Although creation of All India Judicial Services was proposed way back in 1960, but it could not be implemented due to stiff opposition from various state governments. Even the Law Commission in its various reports has favoured creation of AIJS but it was not considered to be practical by some of state governments and High Courts and the proposal was shelved.

As the state governments and HCs have not been able to fill up the vacancies in lower judiciary on time and there has been allegations of favouritism in the selection process, the Supreme Court favoured to introduce Central Selection Mechanism, under which a common test would be conducted at All India level by a central agency which will prepare a merit list of aspiring judges.

Taking suo motu cognizance of a letter written by the Centre to the apex court asking it to introduce single window test for selection of judges, a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justices A K Goel and A M Khanwilkar said, it had hold consultation and deliberation on the issue and decided in favour of the common test.

Referring to common medical examination NEET, the bench said that test for judges in lower judiciary would also be conducted on the same pattern. It said that central agency would be tasked to conduct exam and prepare a merit list. It, however, made it clear that appointment of judges would be done by respective state governments or High Courts and holding common test would not take away their right to appoint judges.

“There are large number of vacancies in lower courts and we have hold consultation to cater to the situation. We want a centralised system for selection process. But the common test would not tamper with the federal structure and appointment would be done by states,” the bench said. It sought response from states and union territories on introducing one window test for selection of judges.

The court noted that there was no uniformity in selection process followed by different states and the common entrance test would remove the defect and would set a common minimum standard for judges across the country. It said that students, after clearing the exam, could opt for the state of their choice and state governments would appoint them.

“We are thinking to expedite the process to fill up the vacancies and our endeavour is towards that direction,” it said and asked the Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Centre, whether it should go “whole hog” in implementing the common test or should it be implemented in a phased manner.

Kumar and senior advocate Ajit Sinha, appearing for Jharkhand government, strongly favoured SC’s initiative and told the bench that common test be applied in one go and not in different phases. They said that common test would ensure that only meritorious candidates were appointed in lower judiciary and country would get efficient judicial officers.

The bench said that it would pass a judicial order for implementing common test for selection of judges and posted the case for hearing to July 10.

The total sanctioned strength of judicial officers in district and subordinate courts is 21,320 as on June 30, 2016. Of these, 16,383 have been filled, leaving 4,937 vacancies.

Lack of sufficient number of judges in lower courts has resulted in staggering number of pendency of cases. As per the National Judicial Data Grid, the pendency in district courts is around 2.8 crore and ten per cent of them — 2,32,3781 — are cases pending over 10 years.