Madras HC Reserves Order On Plea Against GO Permitting Unenrolled Law Graduates To Appear For Civil Judge Exam

The bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice PD Audikesavalu reserved the order after hearing the Petitioner in person and Advocate B Vijay for TN Public Service Commission

Radhakrishnan submitted that TNPSC's notification dated 9th April 2018 inviting applications for direct recruitment to the post of Civil Judge allows a fresh law graduate who has not been enrolled as an advocate to apply for the post. He contended that such clause is arbitrary, unreasonable, irrational and violative of Articles 14 and 16 of the Constitution.

He further submitted that the notification was in contempt of an earlier order passed by a division bench of the High Court wherein the TN State Judicial Service (Cadre and Recruitment Rules) 2007 were read down. The court had observed that the expression "must be a law graduate..who is eligible to be enrolled or enrolled as an advocate" should be read as "Must be a law graduate..who is eligible to be enrolled and enrolled as an Advocate".

TNPSC's counsel brought to the attention of the court another division bench decision wherein the court agreed with the observations of Shetty Commission and held that persons who were eligible for enrollment should also be allowed to participate in the recruitment process.

He submitted that in some cases, a person who has graduated law may miss out on the opportunity to apply for the recruitment since the enrollment process takes place only once in six months time. In such situation, a person should not be restricted from participating in the recruitment process merely because they could not complete their enrollment within such time.

State Government Pleader Muthukumar appeared for the State.

Case Title: M Radhakrishnan v. State of Tamil Nadu

Case No: WP No. 9740 of 2018