Recruitment at the City and District Law Library

For all the buzz about the new India, it’s quite charming to see that the old India hasn’t quite gone away.

Today’s Times of India has an extraordinary story about a wannabe library peon.

Riyaz Saiyad has forgotten the year in which he had applied for job at the City and District Law Library in the city sessions court, Ahmedabad. He has also forgotten the number of vacancies and whether his application was for the post of a clerk, or a peon. Not surprising, since he applied way back in 1997.

A letter calling him for an interview served as a reminder, after 11 years, about six months back. He appeared for the interview last year, but it lasted only for a few minutes. Saiyad has decided to ignore it.

“I could not recall whether I had applied for the job while in college or after my studies. But nothing is going to come out of it. After so many years, I am settled in my family business. It would be difficult for me to work in court even if I am selected,” he said.

The post of a peon in the City and District Law Library, adjacent to the court premises, still lies vacant even after 11 years after he had applied for the job. “I applied in 1997 for this post, but I was interviewed last year. I think that the appointments would take place after three to four years,” he said.

Over 50,000 candidates had applied in the last century for 90 odd vacancies for the post of peon in the city sessions court. The court authorities were baffled by the overwhelming response, 33,000 applicants are still in contention for the posts.

After screening, 17,000 applications were rejected. Interviews began a couple of years ago. Since then, long queues of candidates have become a regular feature in the Bhadra court. “We have completed most of interviews, but there are still some 3000 to be conducted. Hopefully we will finish this within a month,” said the principal sessions judge, GB Shah.

It is mandatory for a sessions judge to participate in each interview for court personnel. Most of his working hours are spent in interviews. To avoid this, the court authorities even tried to conduct interviews after court proceedings. But the authorities are still not sure when the interviews will be over and appointments made. “How can we say this? We have to assess all candidates, else people will go to court. The number is not small,” said the registrar, PS Banker, with true understatement.