Plea To Postpone 'Delhi Higher Judicial Service' Exam Transferred To Delhi High Court's Chief Justice Led Bench

Today, the matter was heard by the division bench of Justice Manmohan and Justice Asha Menon and the matter was transferred to Chief Justice D.N. Patel and the matter will now be heard on 12^th March.

The plea before the Court

The Petition has been filed by one of the exam candidates saying that he is suffering from severe medical conditions that leave him at risk of serious complications if he contracts the virus.

The Petition has been moved by one Ravi Shekhar Mangal Murt through advocates Aditya Kapoor, Kushal Kumar, Harsh Ahuja, Akash Deep Gupta (For Erudite Legal).

The plea stated that the Petitioner is a middle-aged person who at present is suffering through severe health problems of cancer and had undergone for radiation therapy with administration of chemotherapy doses and thus is currently having an extremely weak immunity.

"The Petitioner is at a higher risk of severe complications from contracting coronavirus. The Petitioner is a meritorious person who is now grossly prejudiced by the issuance of impugned notice dated 18^th February 2021", says the plea.

It may be noted that the Delhi Higher Judicial Service Main Examination-2019 is scheduled to take place on March 13-14 and the plea seeks to quash 18^th February notification.

The plea states that in view of the resurgence of Covid-19 cases in many states including Delhi, the conduct of main exams in the month of March, 2021 would unjustly expose the candidates including the Petitioner to the high risks of contracting the coronavirus.

It has also been submitted that many candidates including the Petitioner for the exam are of mature age and most of them also have compromised immunity due to various ailments.

The Plea also states that candidates like Petitioner herein are constrained to attend the exams for two days in the Delhi High Court when the Covid-19 situation is again worsening in Delhi is violative of the right to healthy life enshrined under Article 21 and the rights guaranteed under Article 14 and 19 of the Constitution of India.

The plea further states that the mains examination is to be attended by various candidates who have to travel from across the country and the availability of lodging and transportation is also uncertain and, in these circumstances, the plea states that the possibility of contracting COVID-19 cannot be ruled out.

The pea also mentions the fact that the Supreme Court on 03^rd December 2020 had also postponed the examinations for Advocates-on-Record in view of the rising number of the cases in the month of December, 2020 and that the same are scheduled to be conducted in the month of June, 2021.

The Plea also refers to the recent suo moto cognisance taken by the high court on the demand for vaccinating judges, court staff and lawyers on a priority basis and said that it might be possible that the issue of vaccination is decided by the central government soon and it would allow lawyers to get vaccinated and thereby diminishing the risk of contracting the virus.

"The absence of any urgency to conduct the main examinations and presence of the risks involved in conducting the examinations thus call for the postponement of the main examinations," it said.