PESHAWAR: Peshawar High Court on Wednesday reserved its order over a petition of two candidates for the posts of civil judges, challenging their non-selection by Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Public Service Commission by declaring them failed in the viva.

A bench consisting of Justice Ijaz Anwar and Justice Fazal Subhan took up for preliminary hearing the petition jointly filed by two lawyers Salman Khan and Irfan Uddin, requesting the court to declare illegal the action of KPPSC chairman of declaring them failed in the viva.

They sought directives of the court for KPPSC to appoint them against the vacant posts. They requested the court to summon the KPPSC chairman along with the entire record of their interviews and ask him to provide justification for his impugned action.

Advocate Afrasiab Wazir appeared for the petitioners and stated that 84 posts of civil judges-cum-judicial magistrates were announced by KPPSC on April 3, 2023. He said that his clients applied for the posts.

Petitioners request court to summon KPPSC chairman along with entire record of their interviews

He stated that the petitioners appeared in competitive examination and result of the same was declared on June 26, 2024, wherein only 22 candidates including the petitioners were declared successful in the written portion. He added that they were declared eligible for the interview phase.

The counsel said that a total of 685 candidates appeared in the written examination and only 22 of them managed to qualify it. He stated that the petitioners appeared in the interview after going through intense scrutiny of psychological test and psychological interviews.

He said that the petitioners correctly answered questions of all panellists and were confident of clearing the interview, but they were shocked to know that only 10 candidates were recommended for appointment on July 24, 2024.

Mr Afrasiab stated that seven of the 10 candidates recommended for appointment scored low than one of the petitioners, Salman Khan, in the written portion, even than he was ignored and not considered for appointment.

He contended that the interview panel exercised excessive abuse of power during interviews, which was evident from the fact that the chairman was applying some self-made rules for allocation during the interview.

When he said that candidates were even failed for not speaking good English, the bench observed that having good spoken English was not only good for judges rather also for lawyers.

The bench wondered as to how the high court could become an appellate authority in the case. The bench asked how institutions would function if high court started interfering in their affairs. It observed that the process for appointment of judges should be strict so that competent persons could be appointed.

The counsel stated that recently Sindh High Court ordered that videos should be recorded of interviews during the appointment process. He said that the petitioners also submitted representations to KPPSC, which were replied in negative.

Published in Dawn, November 28th, 2024