Shreya Gupta
On 16th June, 2025, the review petition filed in the Supreme Court challenges its recent judgment dated 20th May, 2025, in the All-India Judges Association case, which mandated a minimum of three years of legal practice as an advocate for eligibility to apply for entry-level judicial posts, particularly that of Civil Judge (Junior Division).
The petition contends that the judgment suffers from apparent errors on the face of the record and seeks a reconsideration of its conclusions. It further prays that if the rule is upheld, its implementation should be deferred to 2027 to prevent undue exclusion of recent law graduates (2023–2025) who had been preparing for judicial services under the prior eligibility framework. The petitioner, Chandra Sen Yadav, argues that the judgment’s immediate enforcement retrospectively harms a large section of aspirants and violates constitutional principles of fairness, legitimate expectation, and equal opportunity enshrined in Article 14.
One of the central grounds of challenge is the Supreme Court’s alleged failure to consider the recommendations of the Shetty Commission, which had advised against making prior legal practice a mandatory eligibility condition. The Commission had observed that law students undergo practical training such as court visits and internships during their degree and further receive structured judicial training post-selection. The petitioner emphasized that this aspect had been ignored by the Court, which instead relied heavily on affidavits from certain High Courts and State Governments that favored reinstating the practice requirement. Meanwhile, contrary submissions by States such as Nagaland, Tripura, Chhattisgarh; and the Punjab & Haryana High Court—who opposed the three-year condition—were not adequately addressed in the judgment.
Another key argument in the review petition is that the judgment lacks an empirical foundation. It does not cite any statistical data, performance studies, or objective evaluation to demonstrate that fresh law graduates perform inadequately as judges. Historically, many successful judicial officers have been directly recruited from among law graduates without any prior bar practice. The Court’s decision, the petitioner claims, is instead based on generalized perceptions and subjective opinions expressed by the amicus curiae and some High Courts, which do not amount to a valid rationale for such a sweeping policy shift.
The petitioner also raises concerns regarding the disproportionate impact of the rule on aspirants from marginalized and economically weaker sections, particularly SCs, STs, and OBCs, for whom sustaining three years of litigation practice may be financially unviable. Furthermore, the rule unfairly excludes law graduates who have gained experience in corporate law firms, in-house legal departments, or public sector undertakings, despite their substantial exposure to legal work. The review petition criticizes the Supreme Court’s attempt to impose a uniform, binding requirement across all States and High Courts through a judicial order, arguing that this exceeds the judicial role under Article 141 and encroaches upon the domain of legislative policy-making.
Lastly, the petition invokes Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to practice any profession, asserting that the three-year condition arbitrarily disqualifies an entire class of graduates without any justified basis for deeming them unfit. Since this restriction is not supported by evidence and lacks proportionality, it is argued to be arbitrary and unconstitutional. Another review petition echoing similar arguments has also been filed by Faguni Mittal through Advocate-on-Record Farhat Jahan Rahmani. Together, these petitions aim to highlight the procedural and substantive flaws in the Supreme Court’s judgment and call for either its reversal or a more measured, phased implementation.
Case title: All India Judges Association and Ors v. Union of India
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