Gill, Attri to take oath as HC Additional Judges next week

Saurabh Malik

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 22

The Punjab and Haryana High Court Registrar-General Gurvinder Singh Gill and Jalandhar district and Sessions Judge Raj Shekhar Attri will be administered oath as Additional Judges of the High Court by Chief Justice Shiavax Jal Vazifdar on Wednesday.

The warrants of their appointment were received at the high court today.

The number of Judges with their elevation will go up to 48. As of now, the High Court with just 46 judges, against the sanctioned strength of 85, is reeling under pendency of more than 2.50 lakh cases.

It is among the top three courts in the country in terms of vacancies; the other two courts facing acute shortage are Allahabad and Madras.

The situation is expected to worsen in the coming months with five Judges — Justice SS Saron, Justice M. Jeyapaul, Justice Rameshwar Singh Malik, Justice Sneh Prashar and Justice Darshan Singh — retiring this year.

Justice Ajay Kumar Mittal of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the senior most after Justice Saron, is also likely to be elevated as the next Chief Justice of Delhi High Court in the coming months.

Available information suggests that he will be elevated in September after Justice Saron’s retirement.

The names of Gill and Attri were forwarded by the Punjab and Haryana High Court collegium to the Supreme Court in June last year, along with eight other names. But only Justice Harminder Singh Madaan's name was cleared paving way for his elevation in December last year. Gill and Attri had to wait as a case revolving around the seniority of Punjab district and Sessions Judges was pending before the Supreme Court.

The names of seven advocates, Anil Kshetarpal, Rajbir Sehrawat, Mahabir Singh Sindhu, Arvind Singh Sangwan, Sudhir Mittal, Harnaresh Singh Gill and Avneesh Jhingan are awaiting clearance after recommendation by the high court collegium in June last year.