Departmental examination: IHC dismisses judges’ petitions

Judges would now have to either appear for the exams or may be asked to leave

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Tuesday dismissed petitions of several judges from the Islamabad district judiciary who had challenged the condition of a mandatory examination for their confirmation.

Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani dismissed petitions of 18 civil judges-cum-judicial magistrates of Islamabad who had challenged the departmental examination confirmation test.

The fate of the judges now hangs in the balance with the dismissal of their petition, through a short order, a senior counsel said.

He added that the judges would now have to either appear for the departmental examinations to continue their service or they may be asked to leave.

The counsel further commented that the judges have three chances to clear the departmental exams and some of them have so far availed one chance.

Previously, the IHC had allowed the Islamabad Bar Association (IBA) to become a party in a case. The bar association wanted to become a party in the case with the hope that civil judges who do not clear the departmental examination should be removed and the vacant positions should be filled on merit.

Earlier, Justice (retired) Noorul Haq Qureshi of the IHC had issued a stay order on the petition of judges who have been working on probation for over two years. They were directed to appear in the test scheduled to be held on December 14, 2015.

With the stay, the examinations were postponed for an indefinite period.

The district judges, through their counsel, had approached the IHC against the examination for their confirmation of service. In the petition, they judges said that they were never offered to undergo the departmental training under rule 20(3) of the Islamabad Judicial Service Rules 2011.

While referring to the schedule for the departmental examination for confirmation issued on June 23, 2015, they said, “suddenly” they have been asked to appear in the departmental examination for their confirmation in the Islamabad.

The judges, through their counsel, maintained that out of 252 applicants who had been called for an oral exam conducted by two judges of the IHC, only 20 candidates, including the petitioners, from all the provinces, were selected.

The counsel informed the court that the IHC chief justice had adopted the rules prescribing a departmental examination of civil judges and judicial magistrates of the Lahore High Court, Lahore. As per Rule 4, the CJ had to constitute a three-member committee, however, he contended that only a two-judge committee was constituted, he said.

He further said that the schedule for the examination was in violation of the Punjab Judicial Service Rules 1991, as four examinations had been scheduled within a period of 10 months and not in two years as specified by the rules.

The departmental examination had to be conducted immediately after the appointment of the judges, the judges contended, adding that they had been recruited in September 2012 whereas the rules were adopted in May 2015.

“Rules have no retrospective effect,” the counsel said. After completing a two-year period, the judges are considered to be confirmed as judicial officers and the rules are not applicable to the petitioner,” he added.

During the time the petition remained pending, the counsel had urged the court to restrain the respondents from conducting a departmental examination for the petitioner “in the interest of justice.”

In addition, the counsel had prayed to declare examination at a belated stage and the two-member committee as unlawful. The court had issued a stay in the case has been vacated by the instant order.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 7^th, 2017.