The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

Wednesday, July 3, 2002, Chandigarh, India

THE TRIBUNE SPECIALS

50 YEARS OF INDEPENDENCE

TERCENTENARY CELEBRATIONS

M A I N N E W S

7 HC Judges sworn in
Tribune News Service

History was made in the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday with the appointment of Ms Justice Kiran Anand Lall. For the first time, perhaps, there are two lady Judges serving simultaneously. The current phenomenon will, however, not last long as Ms Justice Bakhshish Kaur will retire by the end of this week.

Chandigarh, July 2
Five members of the Bar and two of the superior judiciary were today administered oath as Punjab and Haryana High Court Judges by Chief Justice Mr Arun B. Saharya. Following their elevation, the number of judges has increased to 33 against the sanctioned strength of 40.

The Judges to be administered oath included advocates Viney Mittal, Virender Singh, S.K. Mittal, Hemant Gupta and S.S. Saron, along with District and Sessions Judges Kiran Anand Lall and S.S. Grewal.

During an impressive ceremony attended by sitting and retired judges of the High Court, besides bureaucrats, relatives and 500-odd advocates, the Judges swore to “bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established”.

The Judges also swore to “uphold the sovereignty and integrity of India” and to “duly and faithfully and to the best of ability, knowledge and judgement, perform the duties of the office without fear or favour, affection and illwill”.

The ceremony commenced at 10 am sharp in the courtroom of the Chief Justice. As the High Court’s Registrar (General), Mr Pritam Pal, read the warrants of appointment one after the other, the crowd, sitting on comfortable sofa sets listened attentively. They got up to applaud as the newly appointed Judges shook hands with the Chief Justice. Some others clicked photographs.

Prior to his elevation, Mr Justice Viney Mittal, a law graduate from Panjab University, was practising in the High Court here on the civil side dealing with cases pertaining to land, and landlord-tenant disputes. Belonging to a family of advocates — his great grandfather and grandfather were practising law in the erstwhile princely state of Patiala — he joined the Bar in 1972 and was designated senior in 1994. His father too was a senior advocate.

Mr Justice S.K. Mittal, passed his matriculation from a school in Narnaul before joining a college in the same place. After doing his LLB from Kurukshetra University, he passed his LLM with gold medal from Panjab University. Practising law in the High Court here, he was conducting cases mainly of civil, revenue and constitutional nature.

Mr Justice Hemant Gupta and Mr Justice S.S. Saron were regarded a veterans in service law. As an advocate, Mr Justice Gupta’s services were sought by a large number of doctors. Mr Justice Saron, on the other hand, was considered an expert in press-laws, besides other rules pertaining to service conditions. Ms Justice Lall and Mr Justice Grewal were serving as District and Sessions Judges.

The number of High Court Judges, it may be recalled, had decreased from 28 to 26 before today’s swearing in ceremony with the retirement of Justice S.S. Sudhalkar and the transfer of another judge to the Jammu and Kashmir High Court. The number of Judges will, however, not remain constant at 33 as Ms Justice Bakhshish Kaur will retire by the end of this week, while another judge will retire in September. Yet another judge is expected to be elevated as the Chief Justice of a High Court.