District Judge Selection - 35 Years Minimum Age Limit Prescribed By High Courts Not Against Article 233 Of Constitution : Supreme Court

Upholding the minimum age requirement of 35 years for applying for the Delhi Higher Judicial Services Examination, the Supreme Court on Monday held that the prescription of a minimum age limit for the selection of District Judges is not contrary to the Constitution.The Court held that Article 233(2) of Constitution only prescribes a minimum eligibility that an advocate should have at least 7 years practice for selection as a District Judge and that this does not preclude the stipulation of a minimum age requirement."The Constitution does not preclude the exercise of the rule making power by the High Court to regulate the conditions of service for appointment. The Constitution being silent in regard to the prescription of minimum age, the High Courts in exercise of the rule making authority are entitled to prescribe such a requirement", the Court observed in the case High Court of Delhi v. Nisha Tomar."It must be remembered that direct recruitment to the higher judicial services is intended to be from members of the bar who have sufficient experience. In fact, that is the reason why the Constitution stipulated at least seven years of practice as an advocate or a pleader. The High Court would be well within their domain in prescribing a requirement which ensures that candidates with sufficient maturity enter the fold of the higher judicial services. The requirement that a candidate should be at least 35 years of age is intended to subserve this", the bench added.The bench of Justices D. Y. Chandrachud, A. S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli was considering a special leave petition filed by the Delhi High Court on its administrativeside challenging Order dated March 4 passed by a Division Bench of the High Court deferring the Delhi Higher Judicial Services Exam (DHJS), 2022 examination which was scheduled for 20th March. The order extended the last date of application beyond April 7. The order was passed in a petition by Nisha Tomar challenging minimum age limit of 35 years for appearing in DHJS. The petitioners have challenged the Rule brought by the High Court by contending that the Constitution of India, by virtue of Article 233, makes an advocate with seven years of practice eligible to be appointed as a District Judge. Therefore, the High Court cannot frame a Rule prescribing a minimum age limit of 35 years to apply for District Judge post.Mr Amarjeet Singh Chandhiok, senior counsel appearing for the petitioners before the High Court, submitted that :1. Article 233 of the Constitution does not contain any requirement of a minimum age and the only requirement is that in order to qualify for appointment, a person should have been an advocate or pleader for not less than seven years; 2. No minimum age requirement is specified for appointment to the judicial services, as a consequence of which, candidates who have completed at least 10 years of service in the judicial service would be eligible for being promoted to the higher judicial services; 3. The High Court itself had removed the minimum age requirement of 35 years in 2019 which has been re-introduced in February 2022; 4. Persons such as the petitioners before the High Court should therefore be given the opportunity of appearing for the examination for the reason that until the rules were modified in February 2022, they would have been eligible to appear for the examination if it was held at the material time in 2020 and 2021.The submission which has been urged by Mr Chandiok was adopted by Senior Advocates Mr. Siddharth Luthra, Ms. Anita Shenoy, Mr Dharma Seshadri Naidu, the counsel for the interveners and the intervener-in-person. Mr A. D. N. Rao, senior counsel for the High Court, has opposed the submission.Shetty Commission has recommended 35 years minimum age for District Judge selectionThe bench noted at the outset that the First National Judicial Pay Commission, commonly known as the Shetty commission, recommended the introduction of the requirement that for direct recruitment to the cadre of District Judges, candidate should be between the ages of 35 and 45 years, with an upper age relaxation of three years for SC/ST candidates. The recommendations of the Shetty commission was initially followed by an order of a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court in the case All India Judges Association versus Union of India 2002 4 SCC 74. By the order of the court, the states and union territories to whom the copy of the report had been submitted were directed to submit their responses to the Union of India expeditiously. Eventually, the report of the Shetty commission resulted in the judgment of the three-judge bench in All India Judges Association case."The bench noted, "In terms of the rules of several High Courts, it is provided that for recruitment to the higher judicial services, the candidate should be of a minimum age of 35 with the maximum age limit of 45 years. For instance, the rules pertaining to the UP higher judicial services were noticed in the decision ...

District Judge Selection - 35 Years Minimum Age Limit Prescribed By High Courts Not Against Article 233 Of Constitution : Supreme Court

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