New Delhi: Supreme Court Constitutional Court judges on Monday warned against assuming the role of domain experts and recommending remedies, saying it would be dangerous if they strayed from their main duty to decide disputes as neutral referees after taking into account the opinions of rivals. Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justices Joymalya Bagchi and NV Anjaria made the remarks in a petition filed by the Jharkhand Public Service Commission challenging the Jharkhand High Court’s decision to directly delete two questions and award one mark for one of the two options in the question asked by candidates appearing in the preliminary test for recruitment of judicial officers. CJI Kant said: “Just because the examination is for the recruitment of judicial officers and issues related to law, should the Constitutional Court assume the role of super examiner? It will be very dangerous if the Supreme Court judges assume the role of domain experts.” “Tomorrow’s judge may have knowledge of biochemistry. Should he interfere with question papers and answer keys related to recruitment in the field of biochemistry? The HC judge must leave these questions to domain experts,” he added. On the administrative front, the bench said the issues were raised by the Supreme Council in consultation with the JPSC. “The power of re-appreciation/reconsideration of answer sheets must be uniform for all examinations and not just for judicial service examinations. HC cannot become a super examiner and these matters must be left to domain experts,” it said. “If this is the case, then, while exercising its power of judicial review, it is necessary for the Supreme Court to submit the issue to the administrative department of the Supreme Court and form an expert committee to re-examine the answer sheets and answers,” the judge said. The bench asked the high commission to constitute an expert committee of subject experts, including those in the fields of law and English, to re-evaluate the answer keys and answer sheets. While the lawyers sought early resolution of the dispute, the bench asked the HC to resolve it within two weeks and send a report to the JPSC. The lawyer said the Jharkhand judiciary has not made any recruitment in the last two and a half years. In this regard, the CJI said, “What worries me more is that no lawyer has been elevated to the rank of Supreme Court judge since 2017.”
