Amendment in Constitution for All India Judicial Service : Recruitment of Judges

The Government is conscious of the need to recruit talented and experienced persons including lawyers as Judges. The Constitution was amended in 1977 to provide for an All India Judicial Service (AIJS) under Article 312 of the Constitution. There has been overwhelming support in favour of AIJS later also by the Law Commission in its Reports, the First National Judicial Pay Commission, Committee on Centre State Relations and Department Related Parliamentary Standing Committee.

Giving this information in written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Shri Salman Khurshid, Minister of Law & Justice, said that the State Governments and the State High Courts have been consulted on this subject. But, the consensus on having an AIJS has not been possible as 7 out of 20 States and 11 out of 17 State High Courts from whom comments were received, have not supported the proposal. This has delayed the execution of the decision. But the Government intends to pursue it by offering a more plausible and acceptable formulation of AIJS, Shri Khurshid informed the House.