Appointment of Ad Hoc Judges to High Courts: LIVE UPDATES from Supreme Court hearing

A Special Bench of the Supreme Court is hearing a plea for the appointment of additional judges to High Courts. The Bench had earlier mooted the appointment of ad hoc judges in consonance with Article 224A of the Constitution. The matter is being heard by a Bench headed by CJI SA Bobde. .Live updates of the hearing today feature here. .Unless the power of CJI under Art 124 is whittled down, this suggestion of Union does not seem to be practicable: CJI Bobde.."Mr. Attorney, the govt stand seems to be that until 6 months has passed no ad hoc appointment can be initiated," CJI Bobde..AG Venugopal reading out from his note..CJI Bobde says he has not got it..Attorney General KK Venugopal says he has sent a note on the case to the Bench today. .Mr. Attorney I dont see any relevance to these views since these were before the working of the provisions: CJI Bobde. .Venugopal referring to Constituent Assembly Debates and views of various members as per which it would be improper to appoint retired judges to Bench..CJI: if there is any problem then a particular appointment can be denied by the Supreme Court.Mr. Attorney, The Constitution has left it to the CJI to decide. The CJI will definitely have a talk with the retired judge who is proposed to be appointed. If the judge think he has something better to do, he will say no. This is not bonded slavery: CJI Bobde..The objective of having as hoc judges is to deal with areas where pendency is high. This argument that it would be derogatory to them not true. Their consent is sought before appointment: Justice SK Kaul.CJI: its about the fitness, willingness and energy the man has who is being appointed.CJI: More than age its more about fitness. Learned AG is so fit at this age that we should count your age.AG: can we have a person living a quiet retired life at 80 or 85 to take over.Datar: Oh my god, we worked on Tamil New Year and mailed at 11 am.Justice Kaul: we are only saying we do not have it.Datar: Union of India has filed a very useful compilation.CJI: we are all sitting separately, we don't know where you have filed it.Senior Adv Arvind Datar: we have filed the entire minutes of meeting..Justice Kaul: We don't have any report about the consensus?.Datar: No its about regular appointment.CJI: if a judge is going to retire 6 months after today the appointment process of ad hoc judges will start from today?.Senior Advocate Datar continues reading from the suggestions of the Union of India Datar: appointment of retired judges should be considered from case to case basis. pendency should be more than two years..Justice Kaul: please make sure your note comes Mr Datar.CJI: it is perfectly possible given huge amount of pendency in high courts that even though all vacancies are filled the chief justice may appoint ad hoc judges to target a specific type of vacancy. there are criminal appeals pending for 20 to 30 years.Senior Adv Datar: In Bombay, a partition suit was filed by a relative of mine in 1992 and it has not come up even for arguments..Justice Kaul: Madras has about seven or 8 vacancies but recommendations also made and even then pendency is huge.Datar: National Judicial Data Grid shows a total of 57 lakhs of pending cases in High Courts .CJI: we are acutely aware of the problems and difference between a judge and judge. Chief Justice has to be given an option even though there are vacancies for regular appointments..Senior Advocate Vikas Singh: It is also dependent on the quality of the judges. When Justice Kaul was in High court there was no pendency in his court..CJI: Article 224A is a salutary provision. I know a lot of colleagues who said they will not work immediately after retirement. They retire after 40 to 50 years. They can be appointed after some time..CJI: let me tell you something, I could not hear a lot of constitution bench matters because there were other pressing cases that needed to be heard. If ad hoc judges are appointed then regular cases can be heard, constitution benches can be formed etc..CJI: I agree with you Mr Singh.Senior Adv Singh: very few will take up this option by making the junior most .CJI: we must place it on record that there are fleet of cars by the centre and other facilities too. But the only problem is housing and that may be addressed too.AG Venugopal: car, accommodation etc will have to be given which will have expense for the high court.CJI: for example you have a vacancy in Jharkhand and if no judges in Jharkhand is willing to work then any judge from Patna can be appointed. High Court need not be any bar.CJI: if a judge takes over an ad-hoc judge then can it be said he has held the office of judge..CJI: Nobody can interfere with the payment of salaries from the consolidated fund of India. The ad hoc judges should also be paid from therein..Justice Kaul: one of the problems in every court is the very old matters.CJI: there can be arrears in bail matter too. Centre is saying the ad hoc judges are not given fresh matters..Justice Kaul: for every person appointed there will be 200 more saying why not me. In this environment, if one or two judges turn out to be slow we cannot be put the ad hoc judges system into questioning, too much fine-tuning will lead to this losing its objective.CJI SA Bobde: I am not agreeable to make the position of the judge so insecure and we have seen complaints made against judges and some of them are shockingly false. one has to be given security of tenure. they cannot be made vulnerable like this..CJI: Prima facie i do not agree at all. i am on the reality of what can happen. you don't realize what problems may arise..Senior Advocate Vikas Singh: The ad hoc judges should be allowed to do arbitration.Senior Adv Arvind Datar: to start with let it be consolidated fund of India .AG: please pass an interim order and keep the matter open.CJI: we will close the matter. But do you say that there should be an order and the matter be disposed of or the matter be kept open.CJI: let me tell you there will be many judges who are not available or would not be interested. it is the reality.Advocate Kunal Chatterji: Calcutta HC has some reservations about the Article 224A being looked into. We think it should be heard by five judges bench.

Appointment of Ad Hoc Judges to High Courts: LIVE UPDATES from Supreme Court hearing

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