All-India exam soon for lower judiciary?

NEWDELHI: Unable to implement a plan for an all-India judicial service for lower courts in the country, the Centre has now suggested to the Supreme Court an examination on the lines of the NEET to select judicial officers at that level.

Currently, nearly 5,000 posts of judicial officers are vacant — nearly a fourth of the total 21,000 positions — in the subordinate judiciary.

Many of those who are recruited as magistrates go on to serve in high courts. There have been concerns over the quality of judicial officers in the district courts as well as about the lack of uniformity in their recruitment. The Centre has absolutely no say in these recruitments which are made by the state services commissions and the 24 high courts.

“Adoption of the model followed by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) for conducting the National- Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to undergraduate and postgraduate medical courses could also be explored,” law ministry secretary (justice) Snehalata Srivastava recently wrote to the Supreme Court.

“As per the process followed by NEET, the CBSE is responsible for conducting the entrance test, declaration of result and preparation of an all-India rank,” Srivastava wrote to the secretary general, SC.

Among the other suggestions in the communication, the government has proposed that the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) hold the entrance test. The commission conducts the recruitment exams for the all India services for the bureaucracy as well as for the military academies.