9911796707
TMI Blog1985 (8) TMI 387X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ns filed in this court. 2. The petitioners in the above petitions were applicants for the posts of Subordinate Judges in the Delhi Judicial Service. Recruitment to the Delhi Judicial Service is governed by the Delhi Judicial Service Rules, 1970 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Rules') made by the Lt. Governor of Delhi in exercise of the powers conferred by the proviso to Article 309 of the Constitution read with Article 234 of the Constitution, in consultation with the High Court of Delhi. The initial recruitment to the Delhi Judicial Service was made in accordance with Part III of the Rules. 'Initial recruitment' means the first recruitment and appointment made to the Delhi Judicial Service after the commencement of the Rules. Any recruitment to the Delhi Judicial Service after the initial recruitment is required to be made in accordance with the rules contained in Part IV of the Rules. We are concerned in these cases mainly with Rules 13 to 18 of the Rules and the Appendix attached thereto. Rule 13 of the Rules provides that recruitment after the initial recruitment shall be made on the basis of a competitive examination to be held by the High Court at such inter ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... udges of the High Court nominated by the Chief Justice. (3) Chief Secretary, Delhi Administration, Delhi. (4) A Secretary of the Delhi Administration nominated by the Administrator. 5. The Registrar of the High Court is the ex officio Secretary to the Committee. The Selection Committee is required to call for Viva Voce test only such candidates who have qualified at the written test as provided in the Appendix. The duties and functions of the Selection Committee are set out in Rules 17 and 18 of the Rules. They read: 17. The Selection Committee shall call for viva voce test only such candidates, who have qualified at the written test as provided in the appendix. 18. The Selection Committee shall prepare a list of candidates in order of merit. Such list will be forwarded to the Administrator for filling the vacancies then existing or any vacancy that may occur within a period of one year of the preparation of the list. 6. The foregoing is in brief the summary of the rules governing the recruitment of persons to the Delhi Judicial Service after the initial recruitment. On July 5, 1984 a notification was published in the local newspapers by the Registrar of Delhi High Court ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... es had been included in the final list by the Selection Committee and that the names of certain candidates who had been interviewed by the Selection Committee had been omitted from the said final list. Immediately thereafter the petitioners filed those petitions questioning the validity of the procedure adopted by the High Court and the Selection Committee in the preparation of the final list of successful candidates. It is not necessary to refer to all the allegations made in the petitions for the purpose of deciding these cases. We propose to deal with only two contentions raised by the petitioners, namely: (1) Whether it was open co the High Court to include in the list prepared under rule 16 of the Rules names of the candidates who had not secured the minimum marks prescribed in the appendix of the Rules for being eligible to appear at the Viva Voce test; and (2) Whether it was open to the Selection Committee or the High Court to omit the names of certain candidates who had appeared at the Viva Voce examination from the final list. 8. In order to appreciate the above contentions, it is necessary to set out what the Deputy Registrar of the High Court of Delhi has stated in ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f the candidates who had otherwise scored good marks in individual papers but could not secure 60% in the aggregate is annexed hereto and marked as Annexure 'D'. There was yet another candidate, namely, Shri Raj Kamal Gaur who had scored very good marks in all the law papers viz. in Criminal Law 178 out of 200; in Civil Law (I) 144 out of 200, in Civil Law (XI) 133 out of 200 and in language 50 out of 100 but secured 73 marks out of 150 in the Essay and General Knowledge paper and thus disqualified himself for lack of only 2 marks in the Essay and General Knowledge paper. This case was also taken into consideration by the Full Court for deciding to grant two additional marks to each candidate in each subject. This candidate if had only secured 75% marks out of 150 in Essay and General Knowledge paper would have obtained No. 2 position in the merit list even without the addition of two marks in other papers which were subsequently awarded to him as well as to others by reasons of the Full Court decision. Shri Raj Kumar Gaur is an advocate practising at Bhiwani (Haryana) and the other candidates mentioned in annexure 'D' above are neither related nor in any way connec ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ender Poul Kaushik 10. Sh. Raj Kamal Gaur 11. Ms. Asha Menon 12. Sh. Pawan Kumar 13. Sh. Pradeep Chaddah 14. Sh. Narender Kumar 15. Sh. Naresh Kumar Kaushik 16. Sh. Padam Kant Saxena 17. Sh. Brijesh Sethi 18. Miss Rekha Rani 19. Miss Punam Jai 20. Sh. A. K. Chaturvedi 21. Sh. Sudip Ahluwalia 22. Sh. Dilbag Singh 23. Sh. Kamlesh Kumar 24. Sh. V. K. Maheshwari 25. Sh. Rakesh Garg 26. Sh. J. S. Malik 27. Sh. Raj Kumar Jain 28. Sh. Suman Kr. Khanna 29. Sh. Rajinder Kr. Grover 30. Sh. Vijay Kumar Scheduled Castes Candidates :- 1. Sh. Sukhdev Singh 2. Sh. Teeka Ram 3. Sh. Kunda Singh Mohi 4. Sh. Gian Chand 5. Sh. Suraj Bhan" 11. It is seen from the extract of the counter-affidavit filed in Writ Petition No. 3805 of 1985 that the results at the written examination were placed before the Full Court Meeting of the Delhi High Court for its approval on January 25, 1985. The true copy of the minutes of the Full Court Meeting held on January 25, 1985 is produced before us. It reads: "Agenda Minutes To consider the question whether High Court has the power to re-check and re-value the answer book of an examinee of the Delhi Judicial Servic ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... at the High Court is entrusted with the duty of conducting the competitive examination under Rule 13 of the Rules. It is argued on behalf of the High Court that the power to conduct an examination Includes the power to add marks either by way of moderation or by way of grace marks if it feels that it is necessary to do so, and reliance is placed by the High Court on its own past practice, and the practice prevailing in a number of universities in India, where marks are awarded either as moderation marks or as grace marks. It is true that in some educational institutions marks are awarded by way of moderation at an examination if the examining body finds any defect in the examination conducted by it such as inclusion of questions in the question papers which are outside the syllabus, extremely stiff valuation of the answer books by an examiner or any other reason relevant to the question papers or the valuation of the answer books. The reason given by the High Court for adding the moderation marks has nothing to do either with the question papers or with the mode of valuation. The High Court approved the list of 27 candidates who had secured the required qualifying marks which would ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... written paper and 58% in the place of 60% which is required to be secured in the aggregate in the case of candidates not belonging to Scheduled Caste/Tribes and 38% in the place of 40% in each written paper and 48% in the place of 50% in the aggregate in the case of candidate belonging to Scheduled Castes/Tribes. The adverse effect of the moderation on the candidates who had secured the required qualifying marks at the examination in question is quite obvious, since four candidates whose names were not in the list of 27 candidates published on the first occasion have been included in the first list of candidates chosen for appointment from out of the final list of successful candidates in preference to some of the candidates who had obtained the qualifying marks in the written papers and they would have been appointed as Sub-Judges but for the interim order made by this Court. These four candidates were able to get in to the list of persons to be appointed as Sub-Judges because of the high marks they were able to secure at the viva voce test for which they were not eligible but for the moderation marks. The area of competition which the 27 candidates who had been declared as candid ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... to be made to Rules 17 and 18 of the Rules which provide that the Selection Committee shall call for viva voce test only such candidates who are qualified at the written test as provided in the Appendix and that the Selection Committee shall prepare the list of candidates in order of merit after the viva voce test. There is no power reserved under Rule 18 of the Rules for the High Court to fix its own minimum marks in order to include candidates in the final list. It is stated in paragraph 7 of the counter-affidavit filed in Writ Petition No. 4363 of 1985 that the Selection Committee has inherent power to select candidates who according to it are suitable for appointment by prescribing the minimum marks which a candidate should obtain in the aggregate in order to get into the Delhi Judicial Service. It is not necessary to consider in this case whether any other reason such as character, antecedents, physical fitness which may disqualify a candidate from being appointed to the Delhi Judicial Service may be taken into consideration by the Selection Committee while preparing the final list. But on going through the Rules, we are of the view that no fresh disqualification or bar may be ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
|
