Terming the process suggested by the Centre for the appointment of ad hoc judges in high courts under Article 224A of the Constitution as “very cumbersome”, the Supreme Court on Thursday said a simpler procedure should be adopted to ensure that the real objective of their appointment didn’t get defeated.
Terming the process suggested by the Centre for the appointment of ad hoc judges in high courts under Article 224A of the Constitution as “very cumbersome”, the Supreme Court on Thursday said a simpler procedure should be adopted to ensure that the real objective of their appointment didn’t get defeated.
“We find the process suggested in the MoP for appointments of ad hoc judges cumbersome. It should be simplified,” a Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul told Attorney General R Venkataramani.
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It asked the Attorney General to explore the possibility of appointing eminent lawyers as ad hoc judges as many would like to do it as part of their social responsibility.
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Asking the Attorney General and senior counsel Arvind Datar to file their suggestions after having a relook at the memorandum of procedure for appointment of ad hoc judges, the Bench posted the matter for further hearing in February next year.
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On a PIL filed by NGO Lok Prahari seeking invocation of Article 224A for the appointment of ad hoc judges to tackle the problem of mounting pending cases in high courts, the top court had in April 2021 issued guidelines regarding the appointment of ad-hoc judges.
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“After all, the ad hoc judges are retired judges. Their clearance should not take months but days, because once you let them go for six months or a year, they won’t come back. We also have to look at the fact that in some high courts the pendency is very high and having criteria of more than 20 per cent vacancies for making recommendation for ad hoc judges may not help in reducing the pendency of cases in specific subjects,” the Bench said.
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“You have to forget you are appointing judges, you are appointing ad hoc judges. Once the Chief Justices recommend the names, the appointments should happen in a matter of days. It should not be kept pending for long, otherwise the objective will get defeated,” it noted.
Source: The Tribune
