Supreme Court division bench, presided by J. MR Shah and J. CT Ravikumar, on Monday directed Madhya Pradesh High Court to follow the directions given by it in All India Judges’ Association And Ors. v. UoI And Ors. (2010) 15 SCC 170. In particular, the Supreme Court instructed the High Court to reserve only 10% of the seats in the higher judiciary for limited departmental competitive examinations.
A writ petition was filed before Madhya Pradesh High Court which claimed that MP High Court is not following the order given by apex court regarding 10% reservation seats which were to be filled by departmental competitive examination. But MP High Court has exceeded the quota. High Court didn’t amend its service rules as well as in accordance with the order. The petition before MP High Court was dismissed.
Later the case went to Supreme Court. Apex court in this case noted that in view of the directions passed in the 2010 judgement only 10% seats were to be filed by departmental examination. Given the circumstances of the case, the Court noted that 740 posts were authorized in 2017 and that, in accordance with the 2010 ruling, 74 seats might have been filled through a restricted departmental examination. Nonetheless, the claimed mode managed to fill 78 seats. 11 additional positions were then advertised, and 5 of them were filled. As a result, the High Court had filled more seats than the 10% allotted for limited departmental examination. The Bench ruled that no relief could be given to the writ petitioners because they were not the candidates chosen or appointed for the year 2017 and the High Court had objected to their domicile. It also stated that all such vacant seats will be filled in future recruitments.
Case Title: Rajendra Kumar Shrivas v. State of Madhya Pradesh and Ors.
Civil Appeal No.: 1514/2023
Written By – Srijan Raj
