In a bid to fill up the increasing number of vacancies, lawyers of the Karnataka High Court have approached Chief Justice SK Mukherjee with a memorandum calling for the usage of Article 224-A..The constitutional provision prescribes the appointment of retired judges to the high court on a temporary basis..It states:.“…the Chief Justice of a High Court for any State 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 for that State…”.The memorandum, drafted by advocate MR Rajagopal and law firms Veerabhadraiah & Associates and Nyayamitra Associates, was presented to the Chief Justice on Tuesday..According to this report, it was endorsed by senior members of the bar, including Senior Advocates Aditya Sondhi, DLN Rao, N Devadas, Padmanabha Mahale, Anant Mandgi, and former Advocate General Ravivarma Kumar..The memorandum points out that ever since the notification of the NJAC Act, several high courts have had to function at half their strength, leading to an increase in the number of pending cases..This is particularly true of the Karnataka High Court, which currently has 31 sitting judges, as opposed to an approved strength of 62. To make things worse, as many as six judges will retire this year..Next month alone, two judges – NK Patil and AV Chandrashekara JJ. – will attain superannuation..It is certainly a suggestion that should be seriously considered in order to alleviate the burden on the judiciary, and consequently stem the flow of pending cases. And it involves a fairly straightforward procedure that need not stand the test of the collegium, as Senior Advocate Arvind Datar points out in this article..“…the appointment of retired judges under Article 224A does not require the sanction of the collegium. The proposal is by the Chief Justice of the High Court and the President has to give his consent.”.Read the memorandum:
