Indian
Express: Madurai: Friday, 26 June 2015.
The Union Law
Minister has asked the Delhi High Court Chief Justice to look into allegations
of “corruption, favouritism and nepotism” in the Delhi Judicial Services exam
that was held in the national capital last year.
In a letter
dated June 18, 2015, to Delhi High Court Chief Justice G Rohini, Law Minister D
V Sadananda Gowda wrote that his ministry had received complaints about
children of sitting Delhi High Court judges being declared successful when
judges of the same court were involved in the examination process.
Of the 659
candidates who appeared for the exam for the prestigious post of a Delhi judge,
only 15 a little more than 2 per cent were declared successful in the results
announced on May 1 this year.
Records show
that most of the other candidates barely managed to secure qualifying marks
while 644 failed by huge margins.
The topper
and another successful candidate are daughters of sitting judges of the Delhi
High Court, which conducted the exam. The judges of the High Court were also
involved in the preparation of question papers, evaluation of answer sheets and
the interview process.
In his
letter, Gowda wrote that “the Department of Justice has received many
grievances alleging corruption, favouritism and nepotism in the recently
concluded Delhi Judicial Services Examination, 2014”.
Gowda’s
letter, naming the sitting High Court judges whose daughters figure in the list
of 15 successful candidates, stated: “The petitioners have alleged that the
answer sheets were evaluated by those sitting judges whose
sons/daughters/relatives took the exam. It has also been stated that the Delhi
High Court failed to give satisfactory reply to their RTI query in this
regard.”
Attaching
four such complaints along with the letter, Gowda added: “The grievance-holders
have requested that a probe in the whole scam be made, this examination be
scrapped or answer sheets of all 660 candidates be re-evaluated and final
results be declared.”
The letter
also highlighted the seriousness of the issue and referred to the outrage that
erupted over the results that were declared last month.
The
preliminary round of the exam was held on June 1, 2014 and the Mains were
conducted on October 10-11 to fill up 80 vacancies of district and sessions
judges in Delhi.
”(The)
Department of Justice has recently forwarded a couple of similar grievances to
Registrar General of the Delhi High Court for taking action, as appropriate. I,
however, thought it fit to bring the matter to your notice for action, as
appropriate,” Gowda wrote.
Despite
repeated attempts by The Indian Express, High Court Chief Justice Rohini and
registrar in charge of the Chief Justice’s office H C Suri were unavailable for
comment.
Incidentally,
the Delhi Judicial Service exam in 1990 was cancelled over complaints of bias
and nepotism after a group of lawyers and aspirants protested against the selection
of candidates related to sitting judges of the High Court.
The exam was
re-conducted in 1991 and many candidates, who could not pass in the previous
year, were declared successful. Many of them are still serving as district and
sessions judges in Delhi courts.
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