In a first, HC tests candidates’ skills in spoken English

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 25

It was a viva-voce examination just like any other; an examiner throwing queries to the candidates for gauging their skills; and then the wait for the results. Only this time, the evaluator was a Punjab and Haryana High Court Judge. The candidates were a petitioner and a respondent and the courtroom was the examination hall. The Judge has made a “mental note” and the result is awaited.

Known for his ground-breaking ideas for making better the justice delivery system, Justice Rajiv Narain Raina came out with the novel initiative. The effort was to take upon himself the task of judging proficiency in spoken English of two candidates for the post of public relations officer (PRO) at the Central University of Haryana in Mahendragarh.

Petitioner Ajay Kumar had, among other things, submitted that he was far better than respondent-Shailender Singh, who was allowed to join. His counsel had asserted: “It would be significant to state here that in comparative merit, the petitioner is far better than the respondent. Even this court may interact and compare the both by calling them and finding out that the respondent has no experience of working in English media writing and neither is he excellent in speaking English”.

Issuing notice of motion for February 28, Justice Raina on the first date of hearing directed the petitioner and the respondent to remain present on the next date “for this court to gauge their command of spoken English and Hindi, if it is excellent for the post of PRO in the Central University, Mahendergarh”.

As the case came up for resumed hearing on the next date, Justice Raina asserted: “The petitioner and the respondent are present in the court as per previous directions. The court has interacted with them to gauge their speaking skills in the English language in the light of the criteria of selection and have made a mental note of their responses…

“Reply, if any, be filed before the next date of hearing with an advance copy to the other side. The original record of the selection be produced on the next date of hearing”. The case will now come up for arguments on March 28.

Justice Raina only recently came out with an out-of-the-ordinary initiative for cutting down on the pendency of cases by asking a State counsel to come out with a “draft order” to save the court time. The “draft order” became judgment after minor changes, prompting Justice Raina to express an hope that the trial may, after this, become modus operandi to deal with arrears of old cases.

Justice Raina has also decided to take up five “oldest” cases daily while making it clear that adjournments would be granted only under exceptional circumstances.