NEW DELHI: A five-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court ruled that the District Judge appointment process conducted by the Kerala High Court in 2017 was illegal. The High Court's move of setting cut-off marks for VIVA on March 2017 was found illegal by a Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justices PS Narasimha, Hrishikesh Roy, Pankaj Mittal and Manoj Mishra.

The court's assessment is that it is a unilateral action. The verdict was on a petition filed by a group of candidates. Meanwhile, those appointed as District Judges will not be dismissed. Dismissing them six years after their appointment would be a drastic step. The Supreme Court also pointed out that there will be a situation where the higher judiciary will lose the services of these judicial officers who have gained six years of experience.

As per Kerala State Higher Judicial Services Special Rules, total marks of written test and viva are to be considered for District Judge appointment. The recruitment notification did not mention that Viva has cut-off marks. Therefore, the Constitution Bench found that the High Court's action of viva fixing the cut-off marks was in violation of the Rules. The Supreme Court also clarified that the fact that they were not selected in the 2017 recruitment process will not be a hindrance to future recruitment efforts of the petitioner candidates.