The Bombay High Court on Friday dismissed a petition challenging the recruitment process for 89 district judge posts in Maharashtra, paving the way for the main written examination scheduled for June 27 and 28.The petition was filed by eight lawyers who appeared for the preliminary examination held on May 10, 2026. They did not secure the qualifying marks and were declared unsuccessful. They had sought to quash the recruitment advertisement and preliminary examination results announced on May 14. They also asked the court to stay the written main exam.The petitioners argued that the recruitment process was being conducted under the amendments to the Maharashtra Judicial Service Rules, 2008, which had not been officially notified when the advertisement was published on January 30. They said that the candidates should be evaluated under the rules that were in force at that time and that the application of the unnotified rules violated the Constitution. They also argued that candidates should not suffer due to the delay in publishing the amended rules.A Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Ravindra V Ghuge and Justice Gautam A. Ankhad rejected these arguments. The court held that the recruitment process was consistent with the Supreme Court judgment in Rejanish KV v.The Bench noted that the recruitment advertisement had clearly informed the candidates that the selection process would be governed by the amended Maharashtra Judicial Service Rules, 2008, though the amendments were formally notified later. The amendments were already approved by the Full Court of the Bombay High Court in January 2026 after the Supreme Court’s ruling.The court also pointed out that the petitioners neither sought copies of the approved amendments nor challenged the announcement before appearing for the preliminary examination.The High Court concluded that the petitioners have not established any arbitrariness, illegality or constitutional violation in the recruitment process. He dismissed the petition, allowing the district judge recruitment process to continue as planned.
