3-year practice: SC reserves judgment in MP civil judge recruitment case

New Delhi, Aug 25 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Monday reserved its verdict on a plea challenging a Madhya Pradesh High Court order restraining recruitment for the post of civil judge carried out without mandatory requirement of three years of practice.

A bench of Justices P S Narasimha and A S Chandurkar reserved its verdict.

Advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, appearing for the high court, said a re-exam was "unconstitutional, impractical" and would floodgates of litigation.

The top court had previously allowed the high court to conduct interviews and declare results of the Civil Judge, Junior Division (Entry Level) Exam 2022.

The top court last year stayed the 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.

The amended rules were upheld by the high court, but it started another round of litigation after two unselected candidates claimed being eligible once amended rules were applied while demanding the review of the cut-off.

While restraining the recruitment to the post, the high court directed the exclusion of successful candidates in the preliminary examination not fulfilling 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 was very limited and only open when there was a mistake and error apparent on the face of the record.

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 classes categories from the mandatory requirement of three years of practice.

The high court division bench said the cut-off marks should be re-computed, once the remaining candidates satisfied the criteria under amended recruitment rules. PTI PKS AMK AMK