Standing ground: LHC defends 40% quota for lawyers

Says remaining sessions judges in posts will be filled by promotion

ISLAMABAD: The Lahore High Court (LHC) registrar has defended the 40% quota reserved for advocates to be appointed as additional & district sessions judges (ADSJs) in Punjab.

Civil judge Afzal Majoka has filed a petition in the Supreme Court, challenging the amendment in the Judicial Service Rules 1994 that bars senior civil judges from taking the competitive exam for the post of ADSJ.

According to the policy, 60% of the posts will be filled by promotion of civil judges with 10 years of service and 40% by initial recruitment from among members of the bar with 10 years of standing as an advocate.

The LHC registrar’s statement said the petitioner’s objection to district attorneys and public prosecutors being allowed under the 40% initial recruitment quota was misconceived and misdirected.

He said prosecutors and district attorneys were a different category from judicial officers, which was why the latter fell under the 60% promotion quota.

“The judicial officers knowingly and consciously adopted a course, knowing fully well that they shall be entitled to additional district judgeship only through the method of promotion.”

The registrar said the regime that the judicial officers sought to enforce was absurd and ludicrous, because even if a judicial officer failed to qualify under the direct recruitment quota, members of the bar would be allowed a single inning while the judicial officers insist on playing two innings.

The statement also pointed out that the hue and cry raised by the petitioners (civil judges) about some provinces allowing judicial officers to take competitive exam for the post of ADSJ was of no use, because every province was at liberty to adopt and pursue its own policies on the unarguable basis of provincial autonomy.

The registrar said the present petition did not qualify to be adjudicated under Article 184(3) of the constitution, because it was not inquisitorial in nature and was rather adversarial.

He also said that for the appointment of 158 ADSJs, 887 candidates had been shortlisted for taking the competitive test.

The LHC official requested that the apex court dismiss the constitutional petition with costs, because it is devoid of merit and against facts.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2015.