In a rare outcome, not a single candidate has qualified in the recently held Uttarakhand Higher Judicial Service Examination conducted by the Uttarakhand High Court for direct recruitment to the post of Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADJ). The results were declared recently.
The competitive examination was conducted to fill three vacant posts through direct recruitment from members of the Bar. Out of 64 eligible candidates, only 42 appeared for the main written examination, while 22 abstained. Shockingly, none of the 42 who wrote the exam managed to qualify for the interview stage.
The examination, carrying a total of 600 marks, comprised four papers. As per eligibility criteria, advocates from the Bar aged up to 35 years with a minimum of seven years of legal practice were allowed to appear. The minimum qualifying marks for the main examination were set at 50% for General category candidates and 45% for Reserved category candidates.
Despite the focused recruitment effort to strengthen the higher judiciary by filling three crucial ADJ posts, the complete absence of qualifying candidates raises concerns over the level of preparation and the difficulty of the exam.
