M A I N   N E W S

Seven may move from Bar to Bench
Yoginder Gupta
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 21
The process for the appointment of seven Judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court has begun. According to informed sources, the first hurdle in the race to the prestigious assignment has already been crossed with the High Court recommending the names of seven advocates for their alleviation to the Bench. The collegium of the court has recommended the names of Mr Paramjit Singh Patwalia, Mr R.S. Randhawa, Mr Venod Sharma, Mr Tej Singh Mann, Mr Ajay Lamba, Mr Rajesh Bindal and Mr Mahesh Grover, the sources say.

While the first four advocates belong to Punjab, the rest belong to Haryana.

If Mr Patwalia makes it to the Bench, he will only be carrying on his family tradition. His father, Justice Kuldip Singh, retired as a Judge of the Supreme Court. Before his alleviation to the apex court, Justice Kuldip Singh adorned the Bench at the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The sources say the name of Mr Patwalia, who is in his early forties, has been recommended on his own merit. That he is a son of Justice Kuldip Singh is only incidental.

The High Court has sent its recommendations to the Union Law Ministry, which is the coordinating agency for the appointments to higher judiciary. The recommendations have also come to the Haryana Governor, Dr A.R. Kidwai, for getting the comments of the Punjab and Haryana Governments. Since Dr Kidwai is senior to his Punjab counterpart, he will be coordinating between the two states on the matter.

The sources say it is an unwritten rule that two governments do not make any comments about the advocates to be alleviated from the respective quotas of the two states.

The Haryana Chief
Minister, Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda, who has an inherent respect for the institutions and has also reiterated his commitment to restore the dignity of various constitutional authorities, eroded in the past few years, is unlikely to sit over the file or raise any objection to the names recommended by the High Court.

Moreover, sources close to him say, being a member of the legal profession, Mr Hooda is well aware of the necessity to have more Judges on the Bench as a large number of cases are pending before the court.

The sanctioned strength of the Punjab and Haryana High Court is 53. However, only 29 Judges, including the Chief Justice, Justice D.K. Jain, are on the rolls. Two Judges, Justice N.K. Sud and Justice Amar Dutt, are scheduled to retire next year.

Unfortunately, due to the strained relations between the then Chief Justice, Mr B.K. Roy, and his colleagues, the process of appointment of Judges suffered a setback. The process has now been again put on the rails under Justice Jain, who has also streamlined the functioning of the court and the days of acrimony are history.