The Madhya Pradesh High Court has directed to complete the selection process in three months amid controversy over the recruitment process being done on 138 posts of Civil Judge (Junior Block). On May 16, a division bench of Chief Justice Suresh Kumar Kait and Justice Vivek Jain
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It may be noted that through the advertisement issued on 17 November 2023, the process was started for appointment of 138 posts of Civil Judge (Junior Block) in the High Court, in which 31 posts of unreserved class including Divyang people and posts for various reserved classes were also prescribed. In the advertisement, the petitioners challenged the OBC class not giving any discounts and keeping all qualifications similar to the unreserved class.
Accused of ignoring talented candidates of reserved class
The petition also argued that the minimum 20 marks for interview are unscientific and the preliminary examination has been ignored in selection based on the results of 14 January 2024, 26 February 2024 and the main examination (30-31 March 2024). The result of the examination was released on 10 May 2024. There is a rule to select three times the candidates for interview.
But the High Court did not include talented candidates of a single reserved category in the unreserved category. Candidates of 59 unreserved category were selected for interview and not only 15 candidates were selected for OBC, only three candidates of SC and any candidate of ST. The petitioners also said that under Article 335 of the Constitution, Scheduled Castes/Tribes class should have been given opportunities under relaxation criteria.
High court gave stay order in January
Earlier, the High Court had ordered a stay order on the recruitment process on 24 January 2025, which the Supreme Court turned around on 3 March 2025 and directed to fill the vacant posts. In view of this, the High Court has now considered the appointments under the last decision of the petition, revising the order of 24 January.
On behalf of the petitioners, senior advocates Rameshwar Singh Thakur and Vinayak Prasad Shah presented the side, while advocate Deepak Awasthi presented the side on behalf of the High Court. The matter is related to transparency of recruitment process, social justice and compliance with constitutional provisions, on which all appointments will be conditional till the final decision of the court comes.
Such were 138 posts
According to the advertisement, 31 posts were reserved for unreserved category, unreserved class backlog 17, 9 of scheduled castes, backlog 11, 12 backloges of Scheduled Tribes, 1 post of OBC 9 posts, 6 posts for Divyang.