- (1.) In the State of Bihar, 60 vacancies were available for promotion of Civil Judges (Senior Division) under the 25% limited competitive examination. The affidavit filed by the High Court shows that they could fill up only two vacancies out of the above 60 vacancies under this 25% limited competitive examination. Thus 58 such posts of District Judges remained vacant. The High Court may fill up these posts by promotion of Civil Judges (Senior Division) based on seniority-cum-merit. In future also whenever candidates are not available for being promoted to the category of District Judges for the limited competitive examination, such posts may be filled up by promotion from amongst the candidates available from Civil Judges (Senior Division) based on seniority-cum-merit. The High Court may take urgent steps to fill up these vacancies.
(2.) We are also told that there were 72 vacancies of District Judges to be filled up by promotion from amongst the Civil Judges (Senior Division). It is stated that there are only 39 Civil Judges (Senior Division) found suitable for promotion as District Judges. On 24-12-2008, the panel of the candidates was sent to the Government for appointment.
(3.) We see large number of vacancies of District Judges are lying vacant as the promotion of these posts are not being done timely by the High Court. Considering the large number of vacant posts of District Judges, the High Court should take timely action to fill up these vacancies keeping in mind the principle of seniority-cum-merit. The High Court may deny promotion to a Civil Judge (Senior Division) only in case he/she is not suitable for being promoted and the seniority should always have a predominant role in giving promotion to the Civil Judge (Senior Division) to the post of District Judge. If the posts of District Judges are not filled up in time it is likely that sessions cases may not have timely trial, thereby delaying the whole procedure of justice delivery system. We request the High Court to be practical in the matter of promotion and filling up the posts of the District Judges. It is also brought to our notice that as the promotion policy itself is not working properly, a large number of Civil Judges (Junior Division) are continuing in the same post, causing stagnation from about 15 to 18 years. This is because the timely promotion is not being taken care of by the High Court and this should be corrected at the earliest. Now we are told that a total number of 217 posts have been advertised for appointment of Civil Judges (Junior Division) and 12 posts of District Judges (direct).;