The Supreme Court on Friday appointed former apex court judge Justice AK Sikri to look into the evaluation process of the main exam for the post of Civil Judge (Junior Division) in Haryana, in which surprisingly only nine were shortlisted out of more than 1,100 candidates. The exam was conducted to fill 107 vacancies. A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said Justice Sikri will look into whether the evaluation was acceptable or not and will submit the report to the apex court.
During the hearing, advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for a few unsuccessful candidates told the bench that the selection process needs to be examined as many unsuccessful candidates were selected in Delhi Judicial Services. Countering Bhushan, senior advocate Maninder Singh appearing on behalf of the Punjab and Haryana High Court said that the moderation of the answer sheets was carried out after evaluation.
However, the bench directed the Punjab and Haryana High Court to submit answer sheets to Justice Sikri and slated the hearing after four weeks. The order came on a plea filed by 92 aspirants to the post of Civil Judge (Junior Division) in Haryana, seeking quashing of the result of its main (written) examination which was declared last month.
The SC had on April 29 directed the Punjab and Haryana High Court Registry not to appoint any civil judge in Haryana without its permission. The plea challenged the selection and evaluation method adopted in the examination on the grounds of being unreasonable, arbitrary and mala fide.
