In a first, the Karnataka High Court’s administration has permitted an eight-and-a-half-month pregnant lawyer to write the main exam for the post of civil judge on the district court premises in Mangaluru instead of on the High Court premises, which is the exam centre for all the candidates.
Nethravathi, an advocate from Mangaluru, sent a representation to the High Court to permit her to write the examination on the Dakshina Kannada court premises in Mangaluru as she was unable to travel to Bengaluru due to the advanced stage of pregnancy with a delicate health condition, said K.S. Bharath Kumar, Registrar-General of the High Court, in a press release.
She is one of the 1,022 candidates selected for the main exam, to be held on November 18 and 19, out of the 6,000 candidates who had appeared for the preliminary exam held in July this year for selecting candidates to fill 57 posts through the direct recruitment process.
Her request was assessed by the High Court’s Committee on Direct Recruitment of Civil Judges, comprising judges Justices P.S. Dinesh Kumar, K. Somashekar, S. Sunil Dutt Yadav, Ashok S. Kinagi, and M. Nagaprasanna, and the committee accepted the plea for allowing her to write the exam in Mangaluru considering that she is unable to travel to Bengaluru as she is approaching due date. Chief Justice Prasanna B. Varale approved the committee’s recommendation, said the press release.
Meanwhile, the High Court’s administration, on the directions of the committee and the Chief Justice, has deputed a lady judicial officer, posted in Bengaluru, as an observer to conduct the exam on the district court premises under the supervision of the Principal District and Sessions Judge, Dakshina Kannada. The Chief Justice has also directed the district judge to make necessary medical arrangement for her to attend to any emergency during the exam.
