Hold Public Prosecutor Recruitment exam in Marathi also: Bombay High Court to Maharashtra

The Bombay High Court recently directed the Maharashtra government to ensure that examinations for recruiting public prosecutors in the State be conducted in Marathi language as well [Pratap Prakash Jadhav vs The State of Maharashtra and Anr.]..The direction will be applicable from the next exam and not the upcoming exam slated to be held on September 11. The examination is currently held in English alone. A division bench of Justices SV Gangapurwala and RN Laddha also noted that although the Court had issued directions 12 years ago to hold the examination for subordinate judicial officers in the State in Marathi as well, the Government had not complied with the same. "Twelve years have passed by. It cannot be comprehended that even after 12 years, the government is still searching for the examiners to assess the answer papers in Marathi language," it stated..The Court was a hearing a petition filed by a person appearing for the examination for selection of public prosecutors.The examination is currently conducted by Maharashtra Public Service Commission (MPSC) in English language..Advocate Alankar Kirpekar, on behalf of the petitioner, stated that Marathi being local language, it is incumbent upon the respondent to conduct the examination in Marathi as well. He underlined that examination conducted by MPSC for selection of Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC) is conducted in Marathi along with English.He cited the Bombay High Court's 2010 judgment in Prashant P. Giri & Ors. v/s. State of Maharashtra & Ors to highlight that it had directed examinations for subordinate judicial officers to be held in Marathi language apart from English as the State Government's policy dictated that Marathi be made the language of lower courts.According to him, the petitioner, who had only studied in Marathi throughout his life, would be prejudiced if asked to answer the question paper in English language..Additional Government Pleader MP Thakur informed the Court that the respondents were considering a representation made to them by the petitioner but for the next examination. Since 7,700 candidates are appearing for the exam and only the petitioner had raised the grievance, he claimed that it was difficult to find the examiner to assess the answer paper in Marathi..The Court observed that the petitioner had made the representation in June 2022 while the examination is scheduled to be held on September 11. Hence, the Court opined that the State had enough time to find an examiner to assess the papers in Marathi.It further observed that the government ought to have been serious in implementation of the Court's judgments and should have held the public prosecutor examination in Marathi. "The Division bench of this Court in Prashant P. Giri & Ors. v/s. State of Maharashtra & Ors. (supra) has observed that the policy of the State Government is now implemented by directing Marathi to be a language of lower Court. The Government ought to have been serious in implementing the said judgments in its letter and spirit. The Government cannot say that for the examination of the JMFC facility can be provided for answering in Marathi language and for the examination of Public Prosecutor the same facility would not be provided," it said.However, since the upcoming examination is slated to be held in a few days, the Court preferred not to interfere with it but directed the respondents to conduct the next examination in English as well as Marathi . .[Read Order]