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All-India Judicial Service: Arguments and Challenges

inbatv Legal Reforms

The proposal for an All-India Judicial Service (AIJS) was originally included in the 14th report of the Law Commission in 1958. Under AIJS, the recruitment of district judges would be done centrally through an all-India examination. Further, the State would be allocated to the selected candidates along the lines of the AIJS. AIJS was to be constituted on the lines of All-India Civil Services. The idea behind creation of AIJS was to remove the intervention of judiciary and executive in the appointment of judicial officers. For this purpose, The Constitution was amended under Article 312 and even the Law Commission had suggested for the creation of AIJS. But each time it faced opposition. The bill was even opposed by the High Court Chief Justices who claimed that AIJS is an infringement of their rights.

Many significant challenges stand in the way of creation of the AIJS. On the other hand, there are many arguments in favour of AIJS. They are-

  • With the establishment of AIJS, the recruitment of judicial officers would be transparent and efficient.
  • If the vacancies are filled timely, the issue of pendency and delay of cases would be reduced. Therefore, AIJS is an effective solution to the slow judiciary of India.
  • Cases would be disposed off in the prescribed time if there are adequate judges. Adequate judges would be available if the recruitment is done in large strength through AIJS. It would help in filling approximately 5,000 vacancies across the country.
  • A competitive recruitment process would be just and fair.
  • Several malpractices such as corruption, nepotism, etc. would come to an end if the recruitment is to done through AIJS.
  • Best talents would be selected across the country on the basis of merit.
  • The transparent recruitment process would help in restoring the faith of public in the judiciary of the country.

The challenges faced in creation of the AIJS are-

  • A major issue would be that the posted judicial officer would be unaware of the local laws and customs which are important in deciding cases, particularly in matrimonial or testamentary or property cases where final outcomes are determined by local customs.
  • The vacancy is not uniform across all the states. Further, most of the vacancies are present at the subordinate level and not at the level of district judges. Therefore, AIJS which is only for the recruitment of district judges is not the solution for vacancies.
  • A lot of coaching institutes would start flourishing across the country and hence the education would be commercialized.
  • Many communities who benefit from state quotas may not get any reservation by the Central Government after the creation of AIJS.

There is a mix of opinions on the creation of AIJS. Though it is facing hurdles, the working and design of AIJS shall be in a manner to remove all its shortcomings and shall be implemented in an effective way. The process right from the appointment of judicial officers to their removal shall be made explicit and clear for AIJS to work in an effective way without any loopholes.

-By

Ayushi Mishra

Student Reporter, INBA.