Posting of law graduates as civil judges challenged

A division bench comprising Justice V Bharathidasan and V Parthiban, before whom the PIL filed by advocate M Radhakrishnan came up for hearing on Friday, posted it to April 28, after directing the state and the TNPSC to file its response. 

Radhakrishnan, while finding fault with the notification which enables merely a law degree holder to apply for the post of Civil Judge in his petition said, “The notification makes a fresh law graduate, who has not been enrolled as an advocate, eligible to apply for the post of Civil Judge. 

The said clause, enabling mere law graduates who are not advocates, to apply for the post of Civil Judge was arbitrary, unreasonable, irrational and violative of Article 14 and 16 of the Constitution.”

 Radhakrishnan further said allowing mere graduates in law, who were not advocates and hence not an integral part of the judicial system, to compete for the post of Civil Judge was contrary to the observations of the seven-member Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court. 

Also, referring to another case in which it was held by the High Court that advocates were eligible to apply for the post of Civil Judge, and not mere graduates in law, the petitioner said the impugned notification, which allows law graduates to apply for the post of Civil Judge, would be in contempt of the court and would be a nullity in the  eye of law.