KARACHI: Around 130 lawyers failed to qualify the second subjective tests conducted by the Sindh High Court (SHC) for recruitment on the posts of additional district and sessions judges across the province, it has emerged.

The official result announced by the SHC suggested that 130 candidates — lawyers engaged in either private practice or formerly serving as government law officers — appeared in the second subjective test (Paper-I and II) held on May 18 and 19, respectively.

Sources said that initially 926 candidates, including females, who had a standing of seven years at the bar, appeared in the first preliminary test conducted on April 28 through the Sukkur IBA testing system.

Of them, only 132 candidates, including some females, had successfully qualified for the second subjective tests (Paper-I and II).

None of 130 candidates could qualify in the second subjective tests since they failed to secure 60 per cent aggregate marks required to pass each paper, according to an official notification.

‘The legal education system is being revamped in the light of an SC judgement’

The tests are designed to judge the candidates’ knowledge of the civil and criminal laws as well as language, general knowledge, etc.

The lawyers recalled that last year only one candidate had passed these tests, out of around 1,100 candidates aspiring for appointment on the posts of the additional district and sessions judges across the province.

Commenting on the results, the Karachi Bar Association’s former secretary general Advocate Ashfaq Ali Gilal conceded that the standards of law education had not been up to the mark in the province that was reflected from the results of the tests for the ADJ posts.

However, he added, that the examination system had been made tough for the candidates by enhancing the merit criteria for the appointment in the subordinate judiciary.

Lawyers said that the legal education system was also being revamped in the light of a judgement passed by the Supreme Court following a growing number of complaints and judgements passed in the subordinate judiciary across the country.

Therefore, the length of the LLB (bachelor of law) degree programme had been increased to five years from three years, they said. Secondly, in most of the institutions the evening LLB degree programme was being ended to make it full-day study programme.

However, the KBA’s incumbent secretary general Advocate Amir Saleem was critical of the examination system arguing that the criteria of obtaining 60pc marks in each paper would make it difficult for a large number of law students, who previously used to pass the exams by securing up to 50pc marks.

He said it would only benefit those candidates with financially well-off background, who could study at the expensive private institutes, to get jobs in the judiciary and deprive others who had limited resources.

Published in Dawn, August 15th, 2019