SC Stays Appointment Of Civil Judges In Haryana Judicial Service, Summons P&H HC Registrar [Read Order]

The Supreme Court on Monday restrained the Punjab and Haryana High Court from appointing  Junior Civil Judges in Haryana Judicial Service without the leave of the Court.

The Court has also issued notice on the challenge to the selection process and the evaluation method adopted in the Mains Examination for the post of Civil Judge (Junior Division) in Haryana, the results of which were declared on April 11.

The bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi required the Registrar General of the High Court of Punjab and Haryana to be present in the court on May 3 with the records of the selection, including the evaluation of the answer scripts of all the candidates.

Regarding the recruitment process in the Haryana Civil Service (Judicial Branch) Examination- 2017 as arbitrary and malafide, it is pointed out that

Surprisingly, only 9 students (inclusive of all categories) have been selected for the interview for a total of 107 vacancies, despite the required number of candidates to be called for viva voice having been clearly mentioned as THRICE THE NUMBER of advertised posts.

It is put forth that what is remarkable is that at least 20-30 candidates, who appeared for the Mains Exam but were not selected for the interview, are those who have already cleared judicial examinations of other states or most of them are sitting judges in their respective states, and Some of the candidates not found fit for the interview are toppers and gold medalists of reputed law colleges.

"Through the information obtained under RTI Act, it is clear that in the last examination cycle (2015 HCS Judicial Branch Recruitment) leading to appointment of successful candidates to State Judicial Services, there was "no marking criteria" for the evaluation of answer scripts in the related mains examination and that the "performance of the candidate in the Written Examination is dependent solely on the discretion on the examiner", the petition filed by Advocate Prashant Bhushan avers.

Juxtaposing the instances of other State Judicial Service examinations which are conducted on a pattern similar to the state of Haryana, emphasis has been placed upon the necessity of devoting due time for a fair, reasonable and thorough evaluation of answer sheets- "It is, accordingly, inconceivable that within a span of a mere 24 days, the Respondents herein conducted the exam and also declared the final result in a hasty and hurried manner (while the same took more than 80 days in the case of UP and over 70 days for Delhi). This, by itself, prima facie points to the scope of arbitrary evaluation"

Moreover, attention has been drawn to the High Court of Punjab and Haryana, after an initial enquiry, already having scrapped the entire Preliminary Examination held earlier in July, 2017 on account of the question paper leak. Directions were passed for conducting a Regular Enquiry and a further probe into the entire issue, and a FIR was also directed to be lodged against two candidates and Dr. Balwinder Sharma, Registrar (Recruitment). 

Read the Order