High Court insists on conducting T.N. judicial service examination every year to reduce vacancies and also pendency of cases

Madras HC stresses need for conducting judicial service exams every year to address 300 vacancies & cases pending for 30 yrs. Bench dismissed batch of writ petitions challenging TNPSC's recruitment notification for 245 Civil Judges. Covid pandemic had delayed selection process.

Taking serious note of almost 300 vacancies existing in the cadre of Civil Judge in the subordinate judiciary in the State and cases as old as 30 years still pending adjudication, the Madras High Court has impressed upon the need for conducting judicial service examinations every year without a break.

Justices S. Vaidyanathan and K. Rajasekar said only if the recruitment process was conducted year on year, the pending litigations could be minimized and also the complaints related to deprivation of promotion to eligible civil judges as sub-judges and sub-judges as district judges could be addressed.

The observations were made while dismissing a batch of writ petitions filed by a group of aspirants to the post of Civil Judge. The petitioners had challenged the recruitment notification issued by Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission on June 1 this year for recruiting 245 Civil Judges in the State.

The litigants had contended that the last recruitment to the post of Civil Judge was conducted in 2018 and that there was a long gap since then. The further claimed that the eligibility conditions imposed under the present recruitment notification had made them ineligible to apply for the post.

However, not finding any reason to entertain their plea, the second Division Bench said it did not want to interfere with the recruitment notification in the absence of any arbitrariness and especially when the written examination for the post of Civil Judge was scheduled to be held on August 18.

“Due to Covid pandemic, no selection process to the judicial service had taken place and if the plea of the petitioners is accepted now, it would amount to opening a pandora’s box and several other similarly placed candidates would start knocking at the doors of this court with the similar demand and in that case, recruitment will turn out to be a never ending process,” the Bench wrote.