Govt ‘sleeping over’ setting up all India judicial service: PIL

Government is “sleeping over” the issue of setting up an All India Judicial Service (AIJS) like IAS and IPS, a plea in Delhi High Court has alleged and sought directions for initiating the process.

The public interest litigation has sought directions to the Centre to establish the AIJS without any delay, claiming that it will result in “uniformity and transparency in the selection process” and improve the quality of judges in high courts and district courts.

The petition has said that as much as 50 per cent of the judges can be recruited through AIJS and through this process, “only the judges of proven competence will preside over the benches and it will minimise the scope of aberration, arbitrariness and nepotism in judiciary”.

While the Law Commission of India has thrice called for creating the AIJS, it has also been endorsed and recommended by the Parliamentary Standing Committee, the first National Judicial Pay Commission and the National Advisory Council, it said.

“However, government gives lame excuses and is sleeping over the matter. As of now, while most government departments have ‘All India Service’ recruits, the judiciary is the only setup that does not have a national-level selection process,” the petition by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay claims.

The plea further said the available number of judges are “unable to clear the huge backlog of over 30 million cases”.

“In the absence of AIJS, it is very difficult to maintain the required judge strength in district courts and high courts,” Upadhyay claimed, adding it would lead to improving the “quality of justice dispensation right from the district courts to the apex court”.