Punjab and Haryana High Court Collegium gives names of 13 advocates for elevation as Judges

Saurabh Malik

Chandigarh, March 19

The crisis in the Punjab and Haryana High Court is far from over. Its Collegium, comprising the Chief Justice and two senior-most Judges, has recommended the names of 13 advocates for elevation as Judges after more than one-and-a-half years. But 15 of its Judges are retiring in the next two years, including four this year.

Available information suggests the names of advocates Nidhi Gupta, Namit Kumar, Tribhuvan Dahiya, Sanjay Vasisth, Harkesh Manuja, Harsh Bunger, Aman Chaudhary, NS Shekhawat, Kuldeep Tiwari, Jagmohan Bansal, Alok Jain, Deepak Manchanda and Harpreet Singh Brar have been cleared by the Collegium.

One of the Collegium members, who resigned from the High Court days before his scheduled retirement on April 5, relinquished charge soon after the names were recommended. It is believed that the file containing the names has been forwarded to the Governors of the two states. But the process of appointing Judges is lengthy and time-consuming.

Once cleared by the states and the Governors after recommendation by the Collegium, the file containing the names with IB reports is placed before the Supreme Court Collegium when it meets. The names cleared for elevation are then sent to the Union Law Ministry before the warrants of appointment are signed by the President. The entire exercise may take months.

The High Court is currently functioning with just 48 Judges against the sanctioned strength of 85. As of now, it has a total pendency of 4,50,739 against 4,47,890 cases in January first week. The cases include 1,65,163 criminal matters involving life and liberty. As many as 64,112 or 14.22 per cent are pending up to one year; 92,318 or 20.48 per cent between one and three years and 1,04,332 or 23.15 per cent between five and 10 year.

The names of Sessions Judges to be recommended for elevation is believed to be in the pipeline. The previous list for elevation was cleared by the High Court Collegium three years ago.