Jaipur:
Lawyers in Rajasthan will hold a statewide bandh on Friday against alleged irregularities in the recruitment of judges. Over 14,000-lawyers in the state have been on strike for over 2-weeks alleging corruption and serious lapses in an exam to recruit district-level judges. The bandh is to press for their demand to scrap the exam and hold a CBI probe into the alleged bungling. But the High Court authorities have dismissed these allegations as baseless.
Lawyers claim that only 37 people were called for interviews for the 36 vacancies of judges and 24 among those were from outside Rajasthan. The lawyers now want the exam to be scrapped, alleging grave lapses in the recruitment process.
Manohar Singh, convenor of the Rajasthan Vakeel Sangharsh Samiti says, "The exam to select Additional District Judges (ADJs) should be cancelled and held again. There was a lot of corruption and injustice in that exam. We want a CBI probe into the ADJ exam."
But authorities at the Rajasthan High court claim there was no irregularity as the entire exam was supervised by two senior Judges of the High Court. There's no question of conducting the exam again, they add.
T H Samma, the Registrar of Rajasthan High Court says, "The exam was conducted according to all rules and norms. Since lawyers from Rajasthan were less successful than candidates from outside, they think there was bungling. But there's no basis for their charges."
So after boycotting work for over 2 weeks, lawyers will hold a Rajasthan bandh all through Friday. And with the High Court authorities in no mood to accommodate their demands, chances of breaking the deadlock that's crippled judicial services in Rajasthan seem rather remote.