Delhi HC strikes down SC rules on interns under top judges

The Delhi High Court has struck down the Supreme Court’s rules on recruiting fresh graduates to act as court clerks and research associates to top judges, a judgement that has come amid a fresh debate on the issue following allegations of sexual harassment levelled by a former intern against retired judge Asok Kumar Ganguly.

While refusing to interfere with the existing internships, Judge Rajiv Shakdher on Monday asked the apex court to formulate a rational policy of empanelment of law institutions across the country.

The ruling came on a petition filed by Phaguni Lal, a student of Mohali’s Army Law Institute who was denied an internship on the grounds that her college was not among those empanelled with the top court.

Striking down the apex court’s rules as a violation of the right to equality under Article 14 of the Constitution, Shakdher asked the Supreme Court to consider Lal’s application for an internship.

The judgement, a copy of which is yet to be made available to the media, can be challenged either before a division bench of the high court or the Supreme Court.

The apex court’s rules date from 2004-05, when fresh graduates were first taken in at a stipend of Rs 25,000 per month payable out of the Consolidated Fund of India.

Lal’s lawyers Rajeev Sharma and Sahil Bhalik had argued that the top court’s policy of selecting institutions for empanelment was arbitrary. Sharma said only 18 of the 9,000 odd institutions teaching law across the country were empanelled with the court and these were arbitrarily picked.