Objection! Courts' hiring lapses nixed checked.

The Times of India: Ahmedabad: Saturday, April 07, 2012.

For years, the recruitment process in district courts of the state had been inviting criticism. As the procedure was not centralized, allegations of favouritism and red-tapism were very common. But Mohit Soni, a retired Dahod court employee, blew the whistle on the flawed recruitment process through his RTI query and informed the high court about the illegalities. The result was that in February this year, the high court - for the first time in six decades - scrapped all recruitments across district courts, including that of Dahod and instituted a central examination system for 2,407 new recruits.

"A year after I retired from the Dahod district court, I filed an RTI query to know the details of those selected in the June 2005 batch," says Soni. "I found that out of 80 people selected, 13 clerks, three peons and two drivers were all above the prescribed age limit, some even 42 years old.The advertisement brought out by the Dahod district court fixed the age limit up to 25 years." Soni adds, "I worked in the clerical department and was aware of what actually goes on during such recruitment drives. I wanted to inform the high court of the malpractices and hence filed the RTI. As citizens, we should consider RTI a tool for participating in the democratic system."

In 2009, a second round of the recruitment drive for class III and class IV employees was announced by the Dahod district court. Here too Soni demanded the final list of recruits. "This time, the Dahod court did not respond," he says. "I had waited almost a year for the reply. I then chose to inform the high court and packed all the information I had got under the RTI Act as proof"

The high court immediately responded in September last year following an RTI application, which Soni had asked one of his close friends to file. The RTI reply said, "The principal district judge, Dahod, was informed to cancel the select list of class III employees as centralized examination will be held by the HC of Gujarat."

In February this year, the high court made application forms for clerical and class IV posts - of district courts across the state - available online. Soni was particularly overjoyed because under the new system courts would have to recruit local candidates.