SC upholds prescription of minimum marks for district court judges exam interview

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said a person seeking a responsible position particularly as a judicial officer should not be shortlisted only by their performance in written examinations, but also by the ability to articulate and engage in the role of a presiding officer in a court.

A bench of Justices Hrishikesh Roy and Prashant Kumar Mishra dismissed a clutch of writ petitions questioning the selection process initiated in Bihar and Gujarat with a minimum cut off marks for interview to the post of judicial officers.

The court said that the prescription of minimum qualifying marks for interview for post of judges in district courts is permissible and this is not in violation of its previous judgment in All India Judges (2002) which accepted certain recommendations of Justice K J Shetty Commission.

"For recruitment of judicial officers, ideally the effort should be to not only test the candidate’s intellect but also their personality. An interview unveils the essence of a candidate— their personality, passion, and potential. While the written exam measures knowledge, the interview reveals character and capability," the bench said.

The court said the Shetty Commission's recommendations are in the nature of guidelines to be seen in the context of the rules governing recruitment of judicial officers.

It also said the decision in All India Judges (2002) cannot be seen to deny adequate elbow room to prescribe qualifying marks in the interview segment to ensure the selection of the best possible person.

"When the minimum cut-off of 20 per cent for the Bihar recruitment and 40 per cent for the Gujarat recruitment are taken into account, those cannot be considered to provide a high threshold if one keeps in mind that the recruitment is for selection of judicial officers," the bench said.

The court felt the written test cannot possibly capture the full spectrum of the individual's abilities and potential.

The bench also said the reliance on competitive exams or written tests as the sole determinant of merit is increasingly being frowned upon.

The court, however, declared the processes such as moderation should be preferably set out in the rules to ensure transparency, certainty and clarity and avoid dilemmas in the selection process.

It also emphasised on adhering to time line in selection process of judicial officers after noting a report indicating the State of Bihar took 945 days to complete the recruitment process computed from the date of advertisement (March 9, 2020) to the date of final result (October 10, 2022).