The Bombay High Court on Friday dismissed a petition challenging the recruitment process for 89 district judge posts in Maharashtra, clearing the way for the main written examination scheduled to be held on June 27-28.The petition was filed by eight lawyers who participated in the preliminary hearing held on May 10, 2026. They failed to obtain qualifying marks and were declared unsuccessful. They sought to withdraw the job advertisement and preliminary results published on May 14 and requested the court to suspend the main written examination.The petitioners argued that the recruitment process was conducted under the Amendment to the Maharashtra Judicial Service Rules, 2008, which had not been formally notified when the advertisement was issued on January 30. They said candidates should be evaluated based on the rules in force at the time and that applying unannounced rules violated the constitution. They also argued that candidates should not suffer as a result of the delay in issuing the revised rules.A bench of Acting Chief Justice Ravindra V Ghuge and Justice Gautam A. Ankhad rejected the arguments. The court said that the recruitment process was in line with the judgment of the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court in Rejanish KV v. K Deepa & Ors., which held that existing rules inconsistent with its decision would no longer apply.The bench noted that the recruitment advertisement had clearly informed the candidates that the selection process would be governed by the revised Maharashtra Judicial Service Rules, 2008, though the amendment was notified formally only later. Following the Supreme Court judgment, a collegiate bench of the Bombay High Court had approved the amendment in January 2026.The court also noted that the petitioner neither requested a copy of the approved amendment nor challenged the advertisement before attending the preliminary examination.The High Court concluded that the petitioners failed to prove that there was any arbitrariness, illegality or unconstitutionality in the recruitment process. It dismissed the petition, allowing the district judge recruitment process to continue as scheduled.
