The abolition of three years of mandatory experience as a practicing lawyer before one could apply and become a District Court judge has led to selection of candidates who are “unlikely to have significant life experiences”, a report by Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy said.
This, the report said, has brought down the average age of new judges in India to about 26-27, except in Kerala where the average age is 33.
“Not only are such candidates likely to have little to no experience at the bar, they are also unlikely to have significant life experiences having lived a sheltered experience with their parents or on a university campus,” the report said.
The issue becomes significant as these judges not only deal with the largest number of cases in the country, but also are the first point of contact for the millions of Indians seeking justice before the courts.
The Supreme Court had in 2002 done away with the minimum experience requirement for becoming a judge on the pretext that it could be compensated through rigorous training at the judicial academies. The Law Commission too had noted in favour of abolishing the requirement.
However, it appear that the Law Commission and the Supreme Court overestimated the ability of the Indian State to impart such skills to young inexperienced advocates through a structured training system, the Vidhi report said.
The report, titled ‘Schooling the Judges — The Selection and Training of Civil Judges and Judicial Magistrates’, has attempted to address this issue by studying two critical aspects — the process of recruiting judges to the district judiciary and their training at the State judicial academies.
‘Worrying problem’
“The most worrying problem with the judicial service examinations conducted in India, according to academics working in this area, is that most judicial service examinations are designed to test candidates on their ability to memorise the law instead of testing their ability to reason and apply the law,” the report stated.
Every High Court now has at least one State judicial academy under its jurisdiction for the purpose of providing induction training to entry-level judges as well as refresher training to sitting judges.
However, providing meaningful induction training to new trainees has proved to be a challenge, the report said, adding that many of the State judicial academies lack the faculty required to deliver a structured induction training programme for new judges.
“In our opinion, if the State judicial academies are to mature into respectable institutions of learning, it is necessary for them to develop independent of the High Courts,” the report suggested.
