Supreme Court allows Madhya Pradesh civil judge aspirants aggrieved by 3-year practice rule to appear for exam

The Supreme Court on Friday granted interim relief to judicial service aspirants who were aggrieved by a rule mandating three years of law practice as an eligibility criterion to appear for the civil judge examination in Madhya Pradesh [Monika Yadav and ors vs High Court of Madhya Pradesh and anr].A bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and KV Viswanathan ordered that all such aspirants including those who had not moved court be provisionally allowed to take part in the exam and selection process..The relief was granted after the counsel representing the Madhya Pradesh High Court made a statement that the rule requiring that candidates have three years of practice as advocates will not be pressed for the time being. The said statement was also taken on record by the Supreme Court. .The bench was hearing pleas by law students who sought permission to provisionally appear in an upcoming examination in Madhya Pradesh to select civil judges for the State. The petitioners challenged Rule 7(g) of the Madhya Pradesh Judicial Service (Recruitment and Conditions of Service) Rules of 1994. By the said provision, aspirants were required to have three years of legal practice to apply for entry-level posts in the lower judiciary of the State.The Madhya Pradesh High Court had earlier refused to allow the petitioners to provisionally apply for the exam, leading to the plea before the top court.The top court had issued notice in the matter on Thursday..After the High Court's assurance on Friday, the petitioners were permitted to withdraw their petitions with liberty to approach the Madhya Pradesh High Court to challenge the validity of the rule concerned.The High Court will try to dispose of the said case by the end of February 2024, the apex court was told.The Supreme Court proceeded to dispose of the case in view of this submission. .Senior Advocate S Muralidhar with advocates Arjun Garg, Aakash Nandolia, and Sagun Srivastava represented the Madhya Pradesh High Court.Senior Advocates NK Mody, SK Gangele, and Raju Ramachandran, briefed by a team from Varun Thakur & Associates appeared for the aggrieved judicial services aspirants.Additional Advocate General Saurabh Mishra appeared for the State of Madhya Pradesh..[Read order]