The proposal to create an All-India Judicial Service (AIJS) is a long debated one.
It has again come to the fore with a fresh move to implement it. However opposition is also getting stronger.
What is the proposal?
The idea was first mooted by the Law Commission in the 1950s to have an AIJS.
Under this the district judges will be recruited centrally through an all-India examination.
They will then be allocated to each State along the lines of the AIS.
This is expected to ensure a transparent and efficient method of recruitment to attract the best talent in India’s legal profession.
What are the human resource problems in judiciary?
The standard of legal education across the country except for a few law schools is not improved or updated for a long time.
Unremunerative pay - Despite effort by the Supreme Court to ensure uniformity in pay scales across States in the All India Judges’ Association case, it is still very low.
Also, judiciary have fewer avenues for growth, promotion and limited avenues for career advancement.
There is low district judge representation in the High Courts, as less than a third of seats in the High Courts are filled by judges from the district cadre. The rest are appointed directly from the Bar.
Can AIJS address these?
The idea of an AIJS is opposed mainly because it seems to lack basic understanding of the above problems with judiciary.
A national exam is said to be disadvantageous to the less privileged candidates from being able to enter the judicial services.
Taking into account local laws, practices and customs which vary widely across States and even training judges in this line would be a problem.
The decentralised approach of the High Court and a centralised one of the AIS seem to have same low efficacy in filling up the vacancy.
What is to be done?
A combination of delays, cost, uncertainty, inefficiency and corruption are among the problems of judiciary.
These problems are less to be solved by centralising the manner of recruitment of judges.
Focussing attention on implementing more direct solutions to address these problems would be wise.
