HC asks Centre, State to respond to petition for expeditious appointment of judges

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Monday asked the central and state governments to respond to a public interest litigation petition seeking expeditious appointment of judges to the HC

Mumbai: The Bombay high court on Monday asked the central and state governments to respond to a public interest litigation petition seeking expeditious appointment of judges to the HC. Although the sanctioned strength of judges in the high court is 94, there are only 61 judges presiding over it at the moment. Moreover, with the elevation of the court’s two most senior judges—Chief Justice Dipankar Datta to the Supreme Court and Justice Prasanna Varale to Chief Justice of another high court—the number is set to come down to 59. Taking this into consideration, the petitioner has requested that the matter be heard urgently.

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Sources in the HC, however, have stated that a swearing-in ceremony is likely to take place this week for six judicial officers whose names were recommended by the SC collegium on September 12 this year. The sources say that two judges from other HCs are likely to come to the Bombay high court as replacements for the two outgoing judges, which will take the number of the HC judges to 67.

A division bench of Justice Prasanna Varale and Justice Nitin Borkar is hearing the petition filed by law professor Sharmila Ghuge, which also seeks directions to the central and state governments to ask retired judges of the HC to preside over cases on an ad hoc basis till the sanctioned strength of 94 judges is reached. The petitioner has sought implementation of the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court of having two to five ad hoc judges per high court and also sought initiation of the recommendation process for new judges three months prior to the retirement of a judge. These guidelines also suggest dispensing with consultation with Intelligence Bureau or other agencies in the appointment of judges.

An earlier bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Madhav Jamdar which was scheduled to hear the matter did not after Chief Justice Dipankar Datta recused himself and directed that it be placed before another bench.

Referring to civil and criminal cases pending for over five years, the petition states that due to the lack of full strength of judges, 2,64,754 cases are pending hearing and adjudication. The petition also refers to the Law Commission of India’s report which recommends utilisation of the experience of retired judges to dispose of the mounting backlog of cases.

In light of these averments, the petition has sought expediting the process of appointment of ad hoc judges till such time as the sanctioned strength of HC is achieved. After hearing the submissions, the bench directed the counsels for the state and Centre to take instructions and respond within two weeks to the petition.