Kolkata, March 18 A single-judge Bench of the Calcutta High Court on Tuesday lifted an interim stay on the recruitment of civil judges for different lower courts in the state, who have qualified in the examination conducted by West Bengal Public Service Commission (WBPSC) for the year 2022.
The preliminary examination for the candidates for the 2022 Judiciary Bench was conducted in March 2023. The main examination followed in May 2023 and finally the interviews were held in April 2024.
However, a candidate from the Other Backward Class (OBC) category challenged the recruitment process stating that reservation rules in the said recruitment were not followed by the WBPSC. Similar petitions in the matter followed.
In December last year, the single-judge Bench of Justice Arindam Mukherjee had put an interim stay on the recruitment process, following which the recruitments of 29 judges for different lower courts were stalled.
A hearing in the matter continued and finally on Tuesday the Bench of Justice Mukherjee lifted the stay on the recruitment which was imposed by him in December last year.
While lifting the stay, Justice Mukherjee also observed that there had been absolutely no flaw in the recruitment procedure by the WBPSC and hence the stay on recruitment has been lifted.
He also observed that there were no merits in the writ petitions filed by petitioners in the matter.
Legal experts say the decision clears the decks for the recruitment of new judges to lower courts and was a welcome move considering that such courts in the state are already running short of judges.
Recently, the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, T.S. Sivagnanam had expressed dissatisfaction over the lack of infrastructure at different lower courts in the state.
The court also censored the state government over the lack of adequate staff in different courts.
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