For the first time since it was established more than a century ago, the Punjab and Haryana High Court will have 13 women Judges with the centre notifying the appointment of nine judicial officers from both the states of Punjab and Haryana.
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The High Court, prior to this, had a record of 10 women Judges.
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The High Court currently has eight women Judges — Justice Ritu Bahri, Justice Lisa Gill, Justice Jaishree Thakur, Justice Manjari Nehru Kaul, Justice Alka Sarin, Justice Meenakshi l. Mehta, Justice Archana Puri, and Justice Nidhi Gupta.
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The judicial officers, whose names have been cleared by the Supreme Court collegium, are Gurbir Singh, Deepak Gupta, Amarjot Bhatti, Ritu Tagore, Manisha Batra, Harpreet Kaur Jeewan, Sukhvinder Kaur, Sanjiv Berry and Vikram Aggarwal.
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Five judicial officers are from Punjab, the others are from Haryana. The last time judicial officers were elevated as High Court Judges was on November 28, 2019. The Chief Justice in consultation with his two senior-most colleagues had recommended their names on March 14, 2019. As many as seven judicial officers were recommended then.
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The High Court, with the approval of the proposal, has another “first” to its credit. The number of High Court Judges, with their elevation, will for the first time cross the 60-mark. The High Court currently has 56 Judges against the sanctioned strength of 85. The number will go up to 65 once the judicial officers are administered oath following their appointment by the President after the clearing of their names by the law ministry. At one point of time, the High Court’s sanctioned strength was 65 only.
The recommendations come at a time when the High Court is staring at a crisis, with more than 10 Judges retiring by next year.
The Judges retiring next year are Justice Tejinder Singh Dhindsa, Justice Harinder Singh Sidhu, Justice B.S. Walia, Justice Jaishree Thakur, Justice Harminder Singh Madaan, Justice Sudhir Mittal, Justice Harnaresh Singh Gill and Justice Ashok Kumar Verma.
Justice Jaswant Singh and Justice Sabina, Judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court but transferred out, also retire next year. The tenure of the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court, Justice Rajesh Bindal, whose parent high court is Punjab and Haryana, will end in April 2023, if not elevated to the Supreme Court.
National Judicial Data Grid figures reveal that the High Court has more than 4,45,229 pending cases, including 1,65,360 criminal matters. It is suspected that many of the petitioners in these cases are no more there to pursue their grievances.
Source: The Tribune
