NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Thursday said a huge pool of talent in retired high court judges, which could be utilised through reappointment as ad hoc judges to help reduce spiralling pendency in cases, was getting wasted.In a judgment in April 2021, SC had permitted reappointment of retired HC judges under the dormant Article 224A of the Constitution to help reduce pendency. With their reappointments being linked to vacancy status, there was little that HC chief justices could do to proceed further on the issue. These conditions were relaxed on Jan 30 this year. Yet, there has been no ad hoc appointment of retired judges to high courts.A bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and Vipul M Pancholi was informed by senior advocate K Parameswaran that the seniority of retired judges and the question of who would head benches, the retired judge or the sitting judge junior to them, was stopping HCs from recommending names for reappointment.CJI Kant accepted that this was one of the stumbling blocks for high court chief justices as “I have discovered while interacting with them during the last few months”. The bench then decided to empower high court chief justices to persuade a sitting judge to sit on a bench headed by a retired HC judge on their reappointment as ad hoc judge.”In modification of Jan 30 order, it is clarified that if there are two ad hoc judges appointed in the HC, it will be the prerogative of the CJ to constitute a division bench. Similarly, it will be the discretion of the CJ to constitute a bench consisting of an advocate or a sitting judge wherever necessary and resolve at his level as to who would preside over the bench in the manner as may be agreeable to both judges,” the bench said.Attorney general R Venkataramani said the memorandum of procedure for appointment of judges provides for the mechanism for such appointments and if any problem or issue arises, he would deliberate on the matter and get back to the court.Under Article 224A of the Constitution, the chief justice of a high court may at any time, with the previous consent of the President, request any person who has held the office of a judge of that court or of any other high court, to sit and act as a judge of the high court of that state. The process for appointment of ad hoc judges would be similar to that for appointment of regular judges under the Collegium system. From a pendency of 38.7 lakh cases in HCs in 2015, the number went up to 57.5 lakh in 2021. At present, the pendency in HCs stands at 63.6 lakh, of which nearly 19 lakh are criminal cases.
