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Delhi HC waits for SC judge committee's wisdom on judicial clerk selection process

SC clerkships: Egalitarian?
SC clerkships: Egalitarian?

The Delhi high court has agreed to wait for a three-judge Supreme Court committee’s decision on review of its policy of selection of judicial clerks.

The SC had appealed against the Delhi HC’s decision that had declared the current selection procedure unconstitutional. The apex court had claimed discretion in its own policy of selection of clerks.

AIL Mohali graduate Phalguni Nilesh Lal had last year petitioned the Delhi HC, while she was a final year student, challenging the validity of the Supreme Court’s (SC) selection procedure, which only allows applications from a small group of law schools.

The HC had ruled that the procedure was unconstitutional, and had asked the SC to consider Lal’s application for clerkship, like all other applications that it was considering, and let her be a judicial clerk for the remaining term of the 2013-14 clerkships in case she was eligible.

The SC had preferred a letters patent appeal against this decision claiming administrative discretion in the way it selects its judicial clerks.

The Supreme Court’s counsel, advocate on record Ritesh Kumar, today told the Delhi high court that the SC had constituted a three-judge committee to look into review of the policy.

Lal’s counsel Uddyam Mukherjee said: “What has basically happened is this: Mr [AS] Chandhiok, for the SC, has written a letter to the Supreme Court and in turn the Supreme Court has supposedly referred the matter to a three-judge committee. The committee was supposed to meet sometime around 19th April. It was not clear from their submission whether it met or did not meet, to kind of see what can be done to change the guidelines or do [something else]. [Chandhiok] even went to the extent of saying that the letter is confidential so we cannot get a copy. But the judge read out the letter in court.”

“The court said we will wait to see if there is some kind of a positive outcome out of this. However we pointed that by that time [the clerkship term] will get over. It runs from July every year till summer vacations start the next year. The judge said when they are considering let them. We pointed it out that this is also one of the reliefs and the judge said it is understandable, however it cannot be said that [the case] will be hurriedly decided,” he added.

The division bench of chief justice G Rohini and justice Pradeep Nandrajog has fixed 7 July as the next date of hearing.

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