Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud called for the need to have an open and transparent process of recruiting law clerks in the Supreme Court.
The CJI said that all his law clerks come from absolutely unconnected backgrounds from all over the country. None of them came from a legal family and they were doing some brilliant work.
The CJI said having a transparent process for the recruitment of law clerks was part of the process of opening up the Supreme Court to the citizens at large and sending a message of confidence to young lawyers across the country.
The CJI added that when they recruited law clerks to assist Supreme Court judges, they were also training lawyers for the future, which in turn was an obligation of giving back to the members of the bar.
CJI Chandrachud also said that there was a need to have law clerks from across the country , and not just those who were connected or those who came with recommendations.
The CJI was speaking at the Supreme Court Bar Association’s felicitation function organised for the eight newly-appointed judges of the Supreme Court.
During his speech, he said that he, along with Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, chaired a committee which came out with a white paper, based on which a new scheme has been introduced for a law clerk examination, which was likely to take place in May.
The idea of the examination was not to test the memorisation capacity of the lawyer, because it was not relevant in a court. Rather, what was relevant was analytical skills. Thus, the examination will take place in two phases, he revealed.
The law clerks will be engaged purely on a short-term contractual assignment commencing from the re-opening of the Court after the summer vacation and concluding by the end of the following year’s summer vacation.
The term can be extended for the succeeding year, subject to the satisfaction and approval of the judge with whom the law clerk is attached or the senior-most judge of the Committee of Judges on Law Clerks, he revealed.
He said a law clerk would be paid a remuneration of Rs 80,000 per month for the assignment term, and if given an extension after 12 months of the initial assignment, then a remuneration of Rs 90,000.
The judges of the Court will be entitled to engage four law clerks, of which two will mandatorily be through the selection process of the Registry. They will also be free to engage all four through the procedure. Moreover, subject to their workload, they can engage five law clerks.
As per the scheme, a law clerk will not accept any other assignment and shall not practise as an advocate in any court of law during their assignment.
Candidate studying in the fifth year of a five-year integrated law course or the third year of the three-year law course after graduation in any stream will also be eligible to apply.
The candidate must not be below the age of 20 years and above 30 years as on the final date for registration, which is April 30, 2023.
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