No names recommended for elevation by Punjab and Haryana High Court in past 1 year
Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, June 19
The Punjab and Haryana High Court is facing a pendency of nearly seven lakh cases and a shortage of 35 judges. Yet, its collegium has not recommended names for elevation for almost a year now.
There have been only two appointments since 2020.
Information suggests the last time the collegium made recommendations for elevation was in August last year. The names of five advocates — Jasjit Singh Bedi, Pankaj Jain, Vikas Suri, Sandeep Moudgil and Vinod Bhardwaj — were finalised and forwarded. These were further forwarded by the Centre to the Supreme Court as late as in April this year and are believed to be pending.
On the other hand, the last time the collegium recommended the names of judicial officers for elevation as High Court judges was more than two years back. As many as seven judicial officers were recommended for elevation by the then Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on March 14, 2019, in consultation with his two senior-most colleagues. The Supreme Court collegium finally recommended the elevation of six judicial officers in September 2019 and they were administered oath in November 2019. It is believed that at least three other senior District and Sessions Judges in Haryana have retired since the collegium last finalised and forwarded the names for elevation. Another two senior judges, in zone of consideration, are retiring this month-end. Their names, too, have so far not been formally considered in a collegium meeting.
The process of appointing judges is lengthy and time consuming. Once cleared by the states and the governors, the file containing the names with Intelligence Bureau reports is placed before the Supreme Court when it meets. The names cleared for elevation are then sent to the Union Law Ministry before their warrants of appointment are signed by the President. The process could take several months, if not taken up on a priority basis.
The High Court, facing a pendency of 6,84,490 cases, including 2,94,927 criminal matters involving life and liberty, is currently working at nearly half its strength. It has just about 46 judges against the sanctioned strength of 85. The problem is expected to worsen in the coming days with two more judges retiring from the High Court later this year.
