The Supreme Court allowed the petitioners’ plea for interim relief and directed the Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission to permit candidates possessing the prescribed qualification, except for Bar enrollment and Bar experience requirements, to appear in the 2024 Chhattisgarh judicial service exam.
The case arose following the Public Service Commission’s advertisement which mandated Bar experience in line with the Supreme Court judgment in All Indian Judges Association v. Union of India[1]. The petitioners contested these requirements before the High Court of Chhattisgarh which passed a judgment upholding eligibility criteria in Advertisement No. 04/2024 that required Bar enrollment and three years’ advocate experience under the Advocates Act, 1961 for the 2024 judicial exam. The current petition was filed as a Special Leave Petition by Urwashi Kaur and others, challenging the impugned order of the High Court.
The petitioners, otherwise eligible law graduates, argued that the impugned experience-at-Bar and Bar enrollment conditions should not apply because the advertisement and selection process commenced prior to the Supreme Court’s All Indian Judges Association judgment clarifying the eligibility regime.
Counsel for the petitioners contended that retroactive application of the “three years’ experience at the Bar” rule would unfairly disadvantage many candidates and was not in line with the principle of prospectivity mandated in judicial service selections.
The Bench comprising Chief Justice B.R. Gavai, Justice K. Vinod Chandran and Justice N.V. Anjaria held that, since the recruitment process began before the judgment in All Indian Judges Association, the Bar experience requirement could not be insisted upon for this exam cycle. The Chhattisgarh Public Service Commission was directed to permit otherwise eligible petitioners to appear for the examination, with liberty to serve notice to the State’s Standing Counsel. The Court clarified that appearing for the exam would not, by itself, confer any equity or guarantee future appointments in favour of the petitioners.
[1] 2025 SCC Online SC 1184
