With the appointment of 10 more additional judges at Punjab and Haryana high court, the number of judges at the court has gone up to 66, an all-time high since its inception.
In another first, high court will now have 13 women judges. The number of women judges has rarely touched double digit at the high court.
The 10 appointments notified by the central government on Tuesday are of lawyer and additional advocate general, Haryana, Kuldip Tewari and nine judicial officers, including five women.
From Punjab, the officers are Gurbir Singh, Amarjot Bhatti, Harpreet Kaur Jeewan, Sukhvinder Kaur and Sanjiv Berry, registrar general, high court.
Those from Haryana are Deepak Gupta, Manisha Batra, Vikram Aggarwal and Ritu Tagore (retd).
The sanctioned strength of judges at the high court is 85. However, there have been a few instances when the number of judges crossed the above-60 mark. In fact, the elevation of judicial officers as additional judges has taken place for the first time since November 2019. Delay, the officials said, was apparently due to a seniority dispute among the judicial officers.
As per officials, these appointments have come at a crucial juncture as 10 senior judges are to retire in next one year. Also, pendency has touched 4.45 lakh cases in the high court, majorly due to non-functioning or partial operation of courts due to Covid.
{{/usCountry}}As per officials, these appointments have come at a crucial juncture as 10 senior judges are to retire in next one year. Also, pendency has touched 4.45 lakh cases in the high court, majorly due to non-functioning or partial operation of courts due to Covid.
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