How should judges be appointed?
In our country, judges are appointed by the judicial services exam of the respective states. Any person who has given the All India Bar Examination or is in the final year of their law course is eligible for sitting for the Judicial Services exam. The exam is highly competitive and a minute amount of people are able to clear it. This is followed by an interview round which most aspirants are able to clear. The description of the the process may be seen as the epitome of the success of the system of appointment of judges.
I am impressed by the criteria being so harsh but I would not deny the fact that the process is becoming a little obsolete. The same system of appointment of judges has been followed since 1961. The judges that are appointed in India are inexperienced. Many reports have shown that the inexperience of the judges is one of the major reason why there are so many pending cases in India. The judges that are appointed appear for the judicial examination just after graduation from law school. They have no experience of the bar. The students that pass the judicial exams are incompetent to handle the cases assigned to them. The average age of a new judge in India is just 26 year old. These young judges are excellent at studies but they are not trained for the real life experience. Their British counterparts are aged 33 and have undergone stringent training in order to become judges. This makes them mature enough to handle the cases.
Therefore, at least 2 to 3 years of work in the field of law should be made compulsory for the students that appear for the Judicial services examination. This step is vital to re-hone the Judicial system of India and to make it competent to handle the mammoth inflow of cases in our country. These steps would help our country achieve greater heights in the field of justice.
The government is already in the process of establishing an all indian judicial service exam this would help establish uniformity in the criteria for appointment of judges. I am great fan of this move. I have faith that the government would not disappoint us in the implementation of the criterion I mentioned above.
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