A public interest litigation petition has been filed in the Madras High Court Bench here seeking a direction to the State government, Registrar General of the High Court and Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC), to take steps to fill vacancies in the lower judiciary in the State and conduct examinations for recruitment of civil judges.
A Division Bench of Justices A. Selvam and N. Authinathan on Monday ordered notices to all three respondents in the case and posted it to June 15 for filing of counter affidavits. R. Silambaraj, a 30-year-old lawyer from Ramanathapuram district had filed the PIL petition contending that the vacancies were leading to a delay in disposal of cases in lower courts.
Referring to the annual plan of TNPSC for this year, he said it did not contain any proposal to recruit civil judges. Further, replying to an application made by him under the Right to Information Act, the Public Information Officer-cum-Under Secretary of the Home (Courts-I) department expressed ignorance about the vacancies in the lower judiciary, he claimed.
The PIO had told the petitioner that no information with regard to vacancies in Civil Judges cadre was available with his department and that such details could be obtained only from the Registrar General of the High Court. He also said that there had been no communication between the High Court and his department in the last three years regarding selection of Civil Judges.
No clear database
“Thus, it is clear that the respondents have not taken any steps to fill the vacancies. Indeed, they have no clear database... It is also clear that the respondents shall not make any Civil Judges appointments in future unless this honourable court directs the respondents to do so,” the petitioner said in his affidavit.
