The CJI led bench in Supreme Court Today (Jan 30) permitted High Courts to appoint retired judges temporarily (ad-hoc) to help reduce the massive backlog of criminal appeals. These judges will work alongside regular judges, but their number cannot exceed 10% of the sanctioned strength. The court also eased earlier conditions for such appointments, making it easier to bring in experienced judges to speed up case resolutions.
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NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court of India today gave an important order to reduce the number of pending criminal appeals in High Courts. The apex court said that High Courts can suggest appointing retired judges on a temporary (ad-hoc) basis to help clear old cases.
These temporary judges will work together with regular judges in Division Benches to speed up the disposal of cases.
A Special Bench, including Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant, made it clear that each High Court can appoint two to five such judges, but the total number of these temporary judges should not be more than 10% of the sanctioned strength.
“Each High Court shall appoint ad hoc judges by taking recourse to Article 224A,”
-the top court said.
The Supreme Court also stated that the existing memorandum of procedure for appointing judges should be followed for these appointments.
“If required, this bench shall re-assemble for further directions. Liberty granted to parties to move an application if required,”
-it added.
Earlier, the Supreme Court had considered making some changes to certain conditions set in its April 2021 judgment regarding the appointment of temporary judges.
In the April 2021 judgment in the case of Lok Prahari v. Union of India, the Supreme Court had, for the first time, allowed the appointment of temporary (ad-hoc) judges in High Courts.
However, in the same judgment, the Court had warned that appointing ad-hoc judges should not become a regular practice in place of appointing full-time judges.
Ad hoc judges cannot be viewed as a routine alternative to regular judges, it had observed.
To prevent excessive reliance on temporary judges, the Court had laid down certain conditions for their appointment.
One important condition was that such appointments should be made only if more than 20% of the total sanctioned judge positions in a High Court are vacant (paragraph 53 of the 2021 judgment).
Other conditions included situations like when certain types of cases have been pending for more than five years, when over 10% of total pending cases have been unresolved for more than five years, or when the number of new cases filed is higher than the number of cases being resolved.
The Supreme Court has now relaxed this threshold, making it easier to appoint temporary judges to reduce the backlog of cases.
CASE TITLE:
Lok Prahari v. Union of India.
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