District Judges' Recruitment : Supreme Court Issues Notice To Rajasthan High Court

The Supreme Court today(April 28) issued notice to the Rajasthan High Court on a writ petition challenging the decision to commence a fresh recruitment process for District Judges without deciding a pending challenge to the 2020 recruitment process.

A bench of Justices JB Pardiwala and R. Mahadevan issued notice to the Registrar General. Advocate-on-Record Namit Saxena, for the petitioners, submitted that in July 2024, the Supreme Court had directed the expeditious disposal of the pending challenge to the 2020 recruitments. However, without deciding the matter, the High Court has now proceeded to issue a new recruitment notification for 2025-26, he said.    

In this writ petition, the petitioners, who appeared in the exam, stated that 85 posts were advertised in 2020 for the District Judge exam. Though 788 candidates appeared for the Main (Written) examination, only 4 were declared as passed and called for interview. 

The petitioners, challenging the selection process, initially approached the Supreme Court, which, on November 17, 2022, asked them to approach the High Court. The High Court on April 18, 2023, ordered Justice Govind Mathur, former judge of the Rajasthan High Court and former Chief Justice of Allahabad High Court, to look into the answer sheets of the Mains Examination.

Accordingly, Justice Mathur submitted his report stating he did not find any irregularity in the marking of the candidates. Against this, objections were filed by the petitioners, and a reply was filed on behalf of the High Court.

The High Court on February 14, 2024, directed the Examination Cell of the High Court to constitute an Expert Committee consisting of eminent professors and jurists. The Expert Committee would pick up 20 copies of each paper randomly and shall examine and evaluate the same while maintaining secrecy in terms of the whole process. 

This Order was challenged by the High Court(on its administrative side) before the Supreme Court, and the challenge was dismissed on July 9, 2024.

Now, the petitioners have approached the Supreme Court alleging that in order to frustrate the February 14 order, the High Court issued a fresh notification for recruitment to the District Judge Cadre. It is argued that since the 2020 recruitment has not attained finality, the subsequent recruitment cannot be carried out. Even in the 2024 recruitment notification, the actual vacancies were not determined and were subject to the final outcome of the directions issued in the February 2024 order.

Case Details: NARENDRA MOHAN vs. THE REGISTRAR (EXAMINATION), RAJASTHAN HIGH COURT & ANR|W.P.(C) No. 000402 / 2025