7. Duchess of ATHOLLasked the Secretary of State for India if he will place upon the Table of the House the rules drawn up by the Punjab Government requiring the judges of the Punjab High Court, when appointing judges to the subordinate courts, to allocate nominations to the various religious communities irrespective of the places secured by the candidates in the qualifying examination?
§ Sir S. HOAREI understand from the Punjab Government that there are no formal rules. For many years it has, however, been the general policy of the Punjab Government to avoid an undue preponderance of any one class or community in the public services, and since 1900 there has been a convention that out of every 11 appointments to the Judicial Branch of the Punjab Civil Service, four should go to Hindus, four to Mohammedans, two to Sikhs and one to members of other communities.
Duchess of ATHOLLDoes not the convention which my right hon. Friend mentioned amount, in fact, to rules sufficiently well understood to have been the subject of a question to the Home Member of the Punjab Government last July, which was referred to in the Civil and Military Gazette of 1st August?
§ Sir S. HOAREI do not know whether that is so or not. If my Noble Friend will send me particulars of her supplementery 710 question, I will look into them. My information goes to show that there are no formal rules.