NEW DEVELOPMENT

The Bar Council of India and all State Bar Councils are strongly in favour of a 3-year minimum experience at the Bar to be prescribed for being considered eligible to sit for a Judicial Service Exam.

Presently, fresh law graduates are being allowed to sit for Judicial Service Examination throughout the territory of India without having any practical experience at the Bar. Judicial Officers not having practical experience at the Bar are mostly found to be incapable and inept in handling matters. Most of such officers are found impolite and impractical in their behaviour with the Members of the Bar and Litigants. They have a lack of understanding of the aspirations and expectations of Advocates and Litigants in the matter of proper and decent behaviour.

The inexperience at the Bar is one of the primary and major reasons for delays in the disposal of cases in the sub-ordinate Judiciary. Trained and experienced judicial officers can comprehend and dispose of matters at a much faster pace, thereby leading to the efficient administration of justice.

In the matter of All India Judges Association & others Vs. Union of India before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, the requirement of 3-year experience at the Bar had been done away with by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India by passing an order dated 21.03.2002. The Bar Council of India is filing an application before the Apex Court to seek the modification of the said order.

The Andhra Pradesh Public Service Commission had invited applications to vide notification bearing No.9/2020-RC dated 03.12.2020 for the appointment of Civil Judges Junior Division in the AP State Judicial Services for Advocates having a minimum eligibility requirement of 3 years as practising advocate.

A Writ Petition (Civil) bearing No.1479/2020 has been filed before the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India by the petitioner Mr Regalagadda Venkatesh against the State of Andhra Pradesh wherein he has challenged the above-referred notification on the ground that the requirement of 3-year experience at the Bar is illegal and unwarranted.

The Bar Council of India is filing another application to seek impleadment as a party in the said matter and shall plead in favour of the urgency and requirement to have a minimum 3-year experience at the Bar as a requirement to be eligible to sit in the Judicial Service Exam.