SC calls for evolving mechanism for performance evaluation of HC judges

Lamenting that some high court judges were unable to deliver judgments on time, the Supreme Court on Monday stressed the need to evolve a performance evaluation mechanism for high court judges.

“Our intention is not to act as a school principal...but there should be broad guidelines...judges should know what is the task before them...that this much we must deliver. This is what our institution (wants)… (There’s) legitimate expectation of the public at large…,” a Bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice N Kotiswar Singh said.

"There are judges who work day and night and are giving outstanding disposal of cases. But at the same time, there are some judges who unfortunately are unable to deliver - whatever may be the reasons, good or bad, we don't know and maybe there are some circumstances," said the Bench which had called for "performance outputs" of high court judges in May this year also.

"Suppose a judge is hearing a criminal appeal, then we don't expect him to decide 50 cases in a day and deciding one criminal appeal in a day is itself a very big achievement. But in a bail matter, if a judge says I will decide only one bail matter in a day, that is something which requires introspection,” it noted.

"Every judge should have a self-management system to ensure that case files don't pile up on their desk. Some of the judges have a habit or an anxiety of hearing more and more cases and as a result they unnecessarily adjourn the cases," the Bench said.

The top court’s comments came while dealing with criminal appeals of some life imprisonment and death row convicts who alleged that the Jharkhand High Court did not deliver verdicts on their appeals despite reserving verdicts for years.

However, the high court later delivered the verdicts in their case and acquitted many of the convicts.

Advocate Fauzia Shakil showed a chart on the status of judgment delivery by various high courts and said that some high courts have not given the data in a prescribed format.

The Bench asked her to file high court data where cases were reserved; date of pronouncements and date of uploading verdicts within two weeks. It also asked senior advocate Ajit Sinha to assist it in the matter.

Some judges had the habit of adjourning cases unnecessarily, the Bench said, adding it could dent their image.