Relevance: Prelims/Mains: G.S paper II: Polity: Governance: Judiciary
Context:
- The idea of an AIJS has been deliberated since Independence. In fact, the First law commission’s 14th Report on ‘Reform of Judicial Administration’ suggested the need for creating a separate All India service for judicial officers.
• Moreover, the vision document titled Strategy for New India @ 75, released by the NITI Aayog, amongst other things, proposed creation of an AIJS akin to the other central services like the IAS and the IPS.
Argument for creation of AIJS:
- It will ensure that subordinate court judges are paid salaries and given perks at parity with government bureaucrats, thereby incentivizing the option of the state judiciary as a viable career prospect.
• The quality of judges will improve as the best legal talent across the country would be selected on the basis of merit.
• The AIJS is also being proposed as a panacea to cure the chronic vacancy crisis plaguing the Indian subordinate judiciary.
• An All India service will offer a more streamlined and regularized recruitment process for the vacancies for District judges in the country.
• The Article 312 of the Constitution permits the Rajya Sabha to create an All India Services. Presently, the appointments to the subordinate judiciary are made under Articles 233 and 234 of the Constitution.
• However, the Article 312 commences with a non-obstante clause, thus will override these provisions.
• Furthermore, Entry 70 of the Union List provides Parliament exclusive authority to enact a law creating such an AIJS and all connected matters. Thus, AIJS creation is constitutionally permissible.
• Lastly, the efficiency and efficacy of judiciary would be increased and the issue of corruption, nepotism etc. would be strongly dealt with.
Arguments against creation of AIJS:
- As the Constitution only permits the appointments of District Judges to such a prospective AIJS, it will not magically remedy the shortage of judges at the subordinate level.
• The idea of an AIJS has been significantly contentious within the legal fraternity and other
concerned stakeholders. The idea has been vehement disagreed by almost half the High Courts.
• Many states see this as an attempt by the central government to encroach is state’s domain. Thus, it will be another ground for conflict between the Union and other federal units.
• If the control over State judiciary is transferred to Union government by removing control of High Court as currently provided under Article 235, the independence of judiciary would be undermined.
• The judges appointed by the All India process will need to familiarize themselves with the local languages, customs and laws of the State.
Way forward:
- Besides creation of AIJS, it will also be prudent to investigate the reasons and causes for the large number of vacancies in lower judiciary so that the timely corrective steps can be taken.
• Moreover, even after the selection, a Judicial service officer need to be provided sufficient training to handle the job. Thus, a meritocratic judiciary is the need of the hour.
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