30% of posts of judges lie vacant

CHENNAI: An irregular recruitment and transfer schedule, coupled with stagnation in the ranks, have been causing havoc in the careers of subordinate judicial officers in the state. “The situation is alarming as nearly 30 per cent of the total positions in the subordinate judiciary are lying vacant. About 235 out of the total 765 posts in the subordinate judiciary are awaiting recruitment/promotion,” said an office-bearer of Tamil Nadu if the requirements of the judiciary were not met by the government. Since then there has been no fresh addition to the ranks, though at least 40 vacancies arise every year due to retirements, promotions or otherwise. As of now, seven posts in the cadre of district judge, 17 in sub-judge category and about 200 (including anticipated vacancies) judicial magistrate/district munsif vacancies are waiting to be filled. "There is lobbying and criticism whenever there is a delay in the appointment of judges to the higher judiciary. But the plight of subordinate judicial officers goes totally unnoticed," said another office-bearer of the Association. Many of the judicial officers recruited in 1995 are still waiting for the first promotion in their career, he added. Pointing out that a recent notification issued by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission to recruit over 200 judicial/metropolitan magistrates was cancelled after an adverse high court order, he said, "There is no meeting of minds among the government, service commission and the judiciary on crucial issues such as age criterion for candidates, preparation of question papers and composition of the interview panel." "Artificial vacancies have been created in the subordinate judiciary, because though vacancies are available to be filled and officials are available to be promoted, the process has not been initiated owing to extraneous reasons," said a magistrate. Leave alone fresh recruitment of judicial officers, even routine promotions are not done as it would ultimately add to existing vacancies at the feeder level. For instance, if 25 seniormost sub-judges are promoted as district judges, the subjudge-cadre vacancies will go up to 55. If these 55 vacancies are filled by promoting as many judicial magistrates, then vacancy position at the magistrate-cadre level would cross the 250-mark. "Thus, in the absence of annual recruitment schedule, sidestepping promotions at different levels is the only option available to authorities," a judge said. Had these vacancies been filled in time, nearly a lakh of pending cases could have been cleared during the relevant period, he conceded. subramani.a@timesgroup.com

22 Apr 2008, 0207 hrs IST , A Subramani , TNN
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