A complaint has been today filed before the Bombay High Court at Goa against the alleged blatant irregularities in the current recruitment procedure of Junior Judges. Drawing the attention of the High Court that the current entire recruitment process was illegal and flawed it has been pointed out that in the advertisement for 15 posts of Junior Judges under the Goa Judicial Service there has been no reservations made despite it being mandatory to have s a reservation of 2% for Scheduled caste, 12% for Scheduled tribe and 27% for OBC in direct recruitment to all posts under the State Government. 133 candidates had applied for the 15 posts of which 17 have been selected for the oral interview which has been scheduled for 29th and 30th January. Though it was clearly stated that the examination for these judges post would be held in three stages one of which would be a Preliminary written examination comprising of multiple choice objective questions, surprisingly this preliminary written examination was not conducted. Bombay High Court at Goa Justice U.V.Bakre has been overseeing this recruitment process and his Private Secretary Mr. Aher Satish Madhukar is in the list of the 17 declared successful at the written examination. Is it proper for the Personal Secretary of Justice Bakre to be a candidate when the selection process is being overseen by Justice Bakre himself?. Candidates were required to essentially have knowledge of Konkani by being able to speak, write, and translate into English and vice-versa. It needs to be seen who has certified that Aher Satish Madhukar who hails from Nasik and is in Goa only from 2007 possessed the required mandatory knowledge of being able to speak, write and translate from Konkani to English and vice-versa. A request for Aher Satish Madhukar’s application form sought under the RTI Act has been handedly rejected under Rule 13(e) of the Bombay High Court Right to Information (Revised) rules 2009. Aher Satish Madhukar who has been working as Personal Assistant at the Bombay High Court at Goa from 2007 was on 15th April 2009 given an ad-hoc promotion as Personal Secretary on the condition that he should complete the process (pass the requisite exam) within a year but till date has not passed that requisite exam. The setting of those questions papers and the marking of the answer sheets needs to be independently examined on whether it was in accordance with the syllabus and fair. Surprisingly important Acts including the Constitution of India did not figure as part of the questions asked. The standard of questions asked being that of an LLB exam it was no real test on the ability, skills and potential of the candidates to be able to discharge their duties as a Judge. The judiciary must ensure that it remains independent and that it is seen to be independent of any influence that might reasonably be perceived as compromising its ability of fairness and impartially. There is need to uphold the public policy of maintaining the integrity of the judiciary and at the same time achieving fairness to the parties concerned. Else the trust of the people will be shaken, when the judiciary does not discharge its duties as per the mandate of the Constitution. This whole procedure followed in this recruitment process has to be examined fairly and independently by a retired Judge or any other independent authority. The procedure followed in the current recruitment of Junior Judges being prima facie flawed and vitiated the whole process needs to be repeated strictly as per the government guidelines, fairly and impartially. “…In the words of Lord Denning MR. justice must be rooted in confidence: and confidence is destroyed when right-minded people go away thinking: The judge was biased In the words of Jonathan Sacks “True freedom requires the rule of law and justice, and a judicial system in which the rights of some are not secured by the denials of the rights of others”.
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 08:58:38 +0000
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