Supreme Court allows lawyer practicing in Delhi to apply for Civil Judge Exam in Telangana

The Supreme Court on Friday allowed a lawyer practicing in Delhi to apply for the Telangana Civil Judge (Junior Division) Examination, 2024 [V Rakesh Reddy v. State of Telangana and Another]..A Division Bench of Justice Hrishikesh Roy and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra passed the order while hearing a challenge against the Telangana High Court decision upholding the eligibility criterion requiring candidates to have local Bar experience to be eligible for the examination. The Court was informed that the last date to apply for the examination is May 17. Considering the same, the Court granted interim relief to V Rakesh Reddy, who is enrolled with the Delhi Bar Council. "The requirement of being a practitioner from the concerned local bar association and certificate of practice from the local bar association may result in his candidature getting rejected. We have entertained similar challenge in the case of District judges. Last date for filling the application form is today. The Petitioner should upload his application form online in terms of advertisement and as an interim measure, the same should not be rejected on grounds mentioned in advertisement," the Court said in the order. .As per Rule 6(A)(1) of the recruitment notification read with Rule (5.2)(A) of Telangana State Judicial Services Rules of 2023, a candidate who wants to apply for the examination is mandatorily required to be a practitioner from the local bar association and submit a certificate of practice from the concerned association as a proof.Since the petitioner was a lawyer practicing in Delhi, his application would have been barred by the eligibility criteria provided in the 2023 rules and the recruitment notification..The High Court earlier this month upheld the validity of 2023 rules and recruitment notification. The rules under challenge relate to the age limits to enter judicial service in Telangana and the requirement for candidates to have practiced in Telangana to be eligible to write the judicial services exam.Aggrieved by the dismissal, Reddy moved the present plea before the apex court..When the matter came up for hearing on Friday, the Court noted that it was already adjudicating a similar matter in which certain lawyers practicing in Andhra Pradesh have challenged the validity of the rule on practice in Telangana courts.The top court in that case had granted the candidates interim relief to apply for the fresh vacancy notification in Telangana. Taking note of that interim order, the Court deemed it appropriate to pass the same relief to the present petitioner as well. It then tagged the present plea with the earlier case and posted the matter for hearing after the Court's upcoming summer vacation..Advocate-on-Record Nidhi Mittal, advocates Apoorv Kurup, Agnish Aditya and Rahul Jangra appeared for the appellant..[Read Order]