Not getting enough lawyers for higher judiciary: SC

One-liner: The SC on Thursday expressed disappointment over not getting enough eligible lawyers for lateral entry into the higher judiciary as additional district judges across the country.

Lateral entry: Lawyers with a minimum of seven years of experience can take a competitive examination for lateral entry into Higher Judicial Services (HJS) as ADJs.

Unsuccessful candidates: A bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud was hearing a plea of several unsuccessful candidates of the higher judicial services (HJS) examination held recently in Rajasthan.

• Refusing to entertain the plea, the bench asked the candidates to approach the HC instead

What the court said: The court said it is of the considered view that such a challenge can be raised under Article 226 of the Constitution in the Rajasthan HC.

Not getting candidates: At the outset, the CJI said, "We are not getting candidates (lawyers) for lateral entry into the higher judicial services across the country. I can tell you this from my experience in Maharashtra and Allahabad HC that we do not find candidates. We would like lawyers to join the higher judicial services."

• The CJI said CJs of different HCs tell him they do not find enough lawyers who wanted to serve in HJS through lateral entry

Demand of lawyers: The lawyers, who had appeared in the Rajasthan HJS, wanted a quashing of the final result which was declared on Oct 21 and a re-evaluation of the answer sheets by a former judge of the SC.

• The Rajasthan higher judicial services examination was held for the appointment of 85 additional district judges in the state

Only 4 called for interview: Over 3,000 lawyers had appeared in the preliminary examination and later, 779 successful candidates among them took up the main examination. However, only four candidates were called for an interview in the final round.

Award of extra marks: Besides seeking quashing of the result and re-evaluation of answer sheets, the unsuccessful lawyers also wanted the award of extra marks to all to ensure that candidates equal to three times the vacancies can be called for an interview.

Source: PTI