Supreme Court raises LDCE quota for District Judge promotion from 10 to 25 percent

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed an increase in the quota for promotion to District Judge through the Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (LDCE) from 10 percent to 25 percent for Civil Judges (Senior Division) [All India Judges Association and Others v Union of India and Others]..The order was passed by a Bench of Chief Justice of India BR Gavai and Justices K Vinod Chandran and AG Masih. "We find that if the quota of LDCE is restored to 25 percent as originally recommended in the Third AIJA Case, which was reduced to 10 percent in the Fourth AIJA Case, it will provide an incentive amongst the officers in the Cadre of Civil Judge (Senior Division). It will also provide them with an opportunity to get accelerated promotion in the Cadre of District Judge if they are meritorious and deserving," the Court said. The LDCE is meant for in-service judicial officers and allows them a fast-track route to promotion. It also provides eligible officers a way to race ahead of their batchmates through a competitive assessment..Supreme Court rules three-year practice as lawyer necessary to be eligible for judicial service.Notably, the apex court had fixed the 25 percent quota in its judgement passed in 2002 (the third AIJA case). However, in a subsequent judgment in 2010 (the fourth AIJA case), it was reduced to 10 percent because many States lacked sufficient number of candidates to fill up the vacancies.However, the Court today noted that with time, a sufficient number of candidates in the Cadre of Civil Judge (Senior Division) were eligible to be promoted as District Judge through LDCE..In the detailed judgement passed today, the top court also reduced the minimum qualifying service for a Civil Judge (Senior Division) to appear in the LDCE to three years.It directed that 10 percent of posts in the Civil Judge (Senior Division) cadre be reserved for accelerated promotion of Civil Judges (Junior Division) who have completed three years of qualifying service through the LDCE route."The High Courts should devise and evolve a test in order to ascertain and examine the legal knowledge of those candidates and to assess their continued efficiency with adequate knowledge of case-law. The remaining 25 per cent of the posts in the service shall be filled by promotion strictly on the basis of merit through the limited departmental competitive examination for which the qualifying service as a Civil Judge (Senior Division) should be not less than five years. The High Courts will have to frame a rule in this regard," the Court observed.It said the High Courts and State governments, which are not calculating LDCE vacancies based on the cadre strength, must amend their service rules to ensure that such vacancies are determined in accordance with the overall cadre strength..[Read Judgment]