No record of judges’ education

[sidmis]

No record of judges’ education
as reported by Rakesh Lohumi, Tribune News Service Shimla, September 30,2008

Incredible it may sound, but it is true. No record of educational qualification of judges is being maintained by the Union Ministry of Law and Justice, the Supreme Court or various high courts. The Department of Justice doesn’t even get the certificates verified from the educational institutions concerned.

This information has been procured under the Right to Information (RTI) Act by Dev Ahshish Bhattacharya, who filed an applications with the Union Ministry of Home Affairs seeking information about the percentage of marks obtained by sitting judges from matriculation onwards, name of the college and university. He had also raised a query whether or not their certificates were got verified from the boards and universities concerned by the Department of Justice.

The ministry informed him that the entire process of initiation of proposal for appointment of a judge of the Supreme Court lay with the Chief Justice of India and in case of high court judges, with the Chief Justice concerned. As such, the records would be available with these courts and accordingly the application was transferred to the registrar of Supreme Court and the registrar of the Delhi High Court.

Responding to the application, the registrar of the apex court said the appointment of judges were made by the President of India as per the procedure prescribed by law and the issues relating thereto were not dealt with and handled by the registrar. The information sought was neither maintained, nor available in the registry.

Bhattacharya field an appeal to the appellate authority for transfer of application to the Rashtrapati Bhawan, as the reply to his application indicated that the records might be available there. The response of the appellate authority was that central public information officer (CPIO) had not informed that the records were available at Rashtrapati Bhawan and so the question of transferring the application did not arise. He said he had no reason to disagree with the stand taken by the CPIO that information sought by him was neither maintained, nor available with him.

Bhattacharya said if all information regarding IAS, IPS and other officers could be made available on the website of the ministries concerned, there was no reason for not doing so in case of judges. He said the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Supreme Court and various high courts should put the complete profile of the sitting judges on their respective websites.

The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Himachal Pradesh Edition