‘States delay recruiting of lower court judges’

Fail to adhere to the SC’s time limit: Study

States take much longer to complete a cycle of recruitment of lower court judges than the time limit prescribed by the Supreme Court, a study has revealed.

The Supreme Court prescribes a time limit of 273 days for a three-tier recruitment system and 153 days if it is a two-tier system.

A data-driven assessment by the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi, showed that the average recruitment cycle was 326.7 days for a three-tier recruitment process to appoint Civil Judges (Junior Division). The Centre said in a statement that data from 20 States were studied, while the average was calculated for 18 States over a 10-year period.

The process is equally time-consuming for District Judges (Direct Recruitment) too. Seven States with a two-tier recruitment system took an average of 196.28 days to complete one cycle. Ten States that followed a three-tier system took an average of 335.9 days, the Centre said.

Two metrics

The report assigned ranking to States after assessing their lower judiciary recruitment processes based on two metrics: average time taken to complete a recruitment cycle and the percentage of vacancies potentially filled. In the direct recruitment of District Judges, relying on data from 15 States, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal were ranked the highest, while Assam and Bihar were ranked the lowest.

In the appointment of Civil Judges (Junior Division), Arunachal Pradesh, Odisha and Punjab got the top ranks, while Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur and Delhi were ranked the lowest. Data from 20 States were considered.