Notification on recruitment of judges upheld

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court Registrar-General, in his counter affidavit filed in the High Court in response to a writ petition challenging a notification dated January 21 this year of the State government, inviting applications for recruitment to the 185 posts of civil judges, has justified the notification.Originally, advocate R Krishnamurthy, in his PIL, sought to quash the entire records relating to the Home Department notification dated January 21 last and for a direction to the government to issue a fresh notification.Krishnamurthy contended that the notification, granting permission to the High Court to make the recruitment directly, made certain relaxations with regard to educational qualification and to the fresh law graduates. It stipulated that the practising advocates should have a minimum experience of three years in the Bar. But, for fresh law graduates, no such experience was prescribed. Hence, the notification was highly illegal, unlawful and could not be sustained in law, he contended.The counter said that the qualifications for the two categories were fixed by the appointing authority after an extensive consideration of all the relevant factors including the recommendations of the Law Commission and were based on reasonable and sound classification and did not suffer from any infirmity. It was only a one-time measure, adopted to the limited extent of enabling the High Court to substitute the role of the TN Public Service Commission. The experience clause had been dispensed with only with a view to roping in the best available talent. It was well settled that it was for the rule making or the appointing authorities to prescribe the qualification for recruitment and the same could not be questioned, the counter added.