Plea in Telangana High Court Challenges Telangana District Judges Recruitment Notification 2020

The plea has been filed by a practising Advocate of the High Court, Vangala Jagan Mohan Reddy, stating that the unjustified delay in notifying the vacancies of judicial officers has deprived him of the opportunity of appearing for the exam.

Further he has alleged that the impugned notification, issued by the Registrar (Recruitment) on October 21, 2020, is also opposed to the Supreme Court's directions in Malik Mazhar Sultan & Anr vs U.P. Public Service Commission & Ors., (2008) 17 SCC 703.

In this case, the Top Court had laid down guidelines and fixed a schedule for filling up of vacancies of judicial officers. The schedule is to commence with the notification of the number of vacancies being issued by 31st March of every year and the whole process has to come to an end with the issuance of appointment letters by 30th September of the respective year.

In the instant case, Reddy said that the Registrar notified vacancies in the category of District Judge (Entry Level) in February 2020. However, a detailed notification for the same was released after a gap of 7 months, i.e. on October 21, 2020.

Born in September 1975, Reddy argued that if the detailed notification had been published in the Month of March or April 2020, then the cut-off date would have been 01-04-2020 and he could have become eligible for the said post.

"However, as the detailed notification is delayed by 7 months due to outbreak of Covid-19 and the same is published on 21-10-2020 fixing the date of age limit as 01-10- 2020, in view of that 22 days age is exceeds of my eligibility. I submit that by virue of the same I am deprived of the opportunity to participate in the recruitment process for no fault on my part," he submitted.

He also submitted that the impugned notification Rule 6(c) of the Telangana Judicial Service Rules 2017 mandates that the 'detailed notification' shall be published in at least two newspapers, one in Telugu and the other in English and in the Official Gazette of the Government.

However, in the instant case he alleged, the Registrar merely issued an abstract advertisement notifying vacancies in the category of District Judge (Entry Level), without disclosing the requisite details,

Another discrepancy in the vacancy notification, as alleged by the Petitioner is that for the same post of District Judge by transfer (Accelerated recruitment by transfer) the Registrar issued a notification in March 2020 itself but in the case of Direct recruitment for other candidates, the detailed notification was issued in October 2020 (although both the positions were notified on the same date i.e.11- 02-2020).

In this context Reddy alleged that the Registrar has created an irrational classification between the candidates of Direct recruitment and candidates by transfer (Accelerated recruitment by transfer), which has no nexus with the stated object of the notification i.e., to appoint District Judges in the State of Telangana.

The petition is field through Advocate S.m Saifullah.

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