Supreme Court on Wednesday has issued notices to the state of Andhra Pradesh and Registry of Andhra Pradesh High Court over a plea filed by a student challenging the eligibility criteria for the entrance exam for civil judge imposing condition of three years of practice in law.
The notices are issued by Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Aniruddha Bose over a plea filed by Regalagadda Venkatesh, an aspirant of the civil judge exam for Andhra Pradesh State Judicial Services and has sought directions to quash the Rule 5 (2)(a)(i)of the Andhra Pradesh State Judicial Service Rules, 2007 as per the amendments made after the bifurcation of the state.
The petitioner stated that the notification dated 28/7/2017 is in violation of Article 14 and Article 21 of the Indian Constitution. However, the bench refused to pass any interim order.
Advocate Aditya Soni representing the petitioner submitted before the court, “there was a time when law used to be the last option & here is a child trying for second consecutive years.”
The petitioner mentioned that in the year 2008, a person requires to be a holder of a Degree in Law from an credible University established by Law in India to appear for a judicial exam for Civil Judge under Rule 5 (2)(a)(i) of the Andhra Pradesh State Judicial Service Rules, 2007.
However, the criteria was changed after the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh into two states — Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. After a few amendments dated 28/07/2017, it is mandatory to have three years of law practice to appear for civil judge exam under Rule 5 (2)(a)(i) of the Andhra Pradesh State Judicial Service Rules.
The petition stated
Pursuant to the amendments notified by both the States, batches of Writ Petitions were filed before the common High Court thereby challenging the amendment made to Rule 5(2)(a)(i) by the States as being in contravention to Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution of India. That while the above Writ Petitions were pending, the common High Court was bifurcated in January 2019 into High Court for the State of Telangana at Hyderabad and Respondent no. 2. It is here pertinent to mention that subsequent to the High Court bifurcation, a batch of Writ Petitions were referred to the High Court for the State of Telangana at Hyderabad thereby challenging the amendment to Rule 5(2)(a)(i), which were subsequently allowed thereby declaring the amendment to Rule 5(2)(a)(i) by the State of Telangana as unconstitutional and to be against the holding of this Hon’ble Court in “All India Judges Association and Ors. Vs. Union.”
The matter has been listed for hearing on January 4, 2021 while the deadline to submit the applications for the civil judge exam is January 2, 2021.
