NEW DELHI: The government has officially set the ball rolling for creating an all-India judicial service in the very first month of its new term through a letter to all state governments and high courts seeking their views on the proposal.ET has reliably learnt that the law ministry sent out a letter on June 19 asking all state chief secretaries and high courts to “furnish views, comments, observations at the earliest.” The ministry has based its proposal on an earlier recommendation from a chief ministers’ conference in 2013. The move comes on the back of repeated assertions by Union law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad calling for the creation of an all-India judicial service.The judiciary, however, has been cold to this idea which was first discussed by chief ministers in 2009 and then deliberated in detail in a similar conference four years later.It was broadly agreed that such a service, which has also been envisaged in Article 312 of the Constitution, be created.The matter never progressed beyond that. In 2014, PM Modi tried to push for a change in the process to make appointments in the higher judiciary through the NJAC bill. A Supreme Court Constitution bench, however, struck down the Act on the grounds that it went against the basic structure of the Constitution.The government, it appears, has this time identified creation of IAS-like judicial service as a reform measure.As of now, there are states which have judicial services but concern has been over those finally finding their way into higher judiciary. The collegium system has often been criticised for a ‘subjective selection process’ in which relatives of known judges and lawyers bag most recommendations.The creation of such a service, according to government officials, will bring a much more professional, better crop of judicial officers. High courts, however, have in the past expressed their reservation on the grounds that those selected through such an examination may not be conversant with local population, their practices and cultural prejudices.The 2013 CMs’ conference had observed: “It is apprehended that lack of knowledge of regional language will erode judicial efficiency in regard to evaluating evidence as well as in pronouncing judgment. This apprehension is not well placed because the language of other states can be learnt without difficulty.”The proposal circulated through the letter envisages a centralised recruitment of at least one-fourth of the district judges to begin with. The candidates would be allowed to give their state preferences just like the civil services.