16 Dec 2023 7:42 AM GMT
The Madhya Pradesh High Court on Friday (December 15) informed the Supreme Court that all candidates will be allowed to appear for the Civil Judge Junior Divison (Entry Level) Recruitment exam 2023, regardless of meeting the requirement of having a minimum of 3 years of practice at the bar after enrollment or 70% marks in the LLB exam.
Based on this submission made by the High Court, the Supreme Court provisionally allowed all candidates, including those who have not approached the Court, to appear in the exam scheduled to be held on December 18. This will be subject to the outcome of the petitions challenging the validity of these requirements, which are pending before the MP High Court.
On June 23, 2023, the Madhya Pradesh High Court amended the Madhya Pradesh Judicial Service (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules,1994, making it mandatory under Rule 7 (g) to have minimum 3 years of practice at the bar after enrollment including a minimum of 6 appearance or order sheets to furnish the same in order to be eligible for the examination. In the absence of the same, the other mandatory requirement was scoring a minimum of 70% (in the General category, 50% in SC/ST) of the Cumulative Grade Point Average in the very first attempt without appearing in any backlogs or ATKT during the entirety of the academic course.
This requirement came to be challenged by two lawyers before the Madhya Pradesh High Court. While the last date to apply is December 18, 2023, the High Court refused to grant a provisional leave to the Petitioners to participate in the examinations due on January 14, 2024. Following that, a Special Leave Petition was filed in the Supreme Court. Writ Petitions were also filed challenging the amendments.
Senior Advocate Dr. S. Murlidhar, appearing on behalf of the High Court, on instructions, submitted before a bench comprising Justices JK Maheshwari and KV Viswanathan that the High Court shall allow “ all the candidates to participate for Civil Judge, Jr. Division (Entry Level) Recruitment Examination – 2022 in furtherance to the Advertisement dated 17.11.2023, who possess the eligibility as per the Madhya Pradesh Judicial Service (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules, 1994, as stood prior to the date of amendment i.e. 23.06.2023”.
It was additionally mentioned that a corrigendum with this regard be issued and widely publicised today itself in daily newspapers to ensure no candidate loses their chance to apply before the closing date of submission, i.e. 18.12.23.
The bench disposed of the SLP recording :
"In view of the statement made by learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the High Court, we provisionally permit all the candidates to fill up the Application Forms (including those who have not approached the court) and provisionally permit to participate in the Preliminary and written examination, subject to the outcome of the challenge to the vires of Rules before the High Court of Madhya Pradesh."
Sr. Advocates N.K. Mody, S.K. Gangele and Raju Ramachandran, Advocate Gaurav Agarwal, AoR Siddhartha Iyer appeared on behalf of the petitioners. The petitioners argued that this amendment to eligibility criteria in the 1994 rules which had been done away with previously has been reintroduced altogether.
The case will be heard by the Madhya Pradesh High Court and be disposed of possibly by the end of February 2024.
Case Details: Monika Yadav & Ors v. High Court of Madhya Pradesh & Anr. WP(C)no. 1380 of 2023 with Tejas Tripathi & Ors. v. State of Madhya Pradesh & Anr. WP(C)no.1398 of 2023