M A I N   N E W S

SC open to easing norms for appointing
High Court judges
Legal Correspondent

The Chief Justice of India, Mr Justice Y.K. Sabharwal (right), is received by Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court D.K. Jain on his arrival at Chandigarh railway station on Friday. — Tribune photo by Manoj Mahajan

New Delhi, December 9
The Supreme Court today said it was open to any suggestion for streamlining the guidelines for appointing High Court judges and even relaxing the age limit of 45 years for making the appointment of a practising lawyer to ensure that no post of judge remained vacant.

This was stated by Chief Justice Mr Y.K. Sabharwal during the hearing of a bunch of petitions raising the issue of judges’ vacancies in various High Courts, including the Madras High Court to which 17 judges were appointed by the Union Government yesterday only after the matter was brought before the apex court by two Bar associations from Chennai.

After Attorney General (AG) Milon Banerjee placed before the Court government’s notification issued last night about the appointment of 17 judges to the Madras High Court, a Bench comprising Chief Justice and Mr Justice C.K. Thakker directed the Attorney General to discuss the issue of streamlining the guidelines on appointments with senior advocate K.K. Venugopal, counsel for the Bar association from Chennai.

Venugopal said: “There is urgent need to reframe the guidelines for appointment of judges to get the best of talent from the Bar.”

“Mr Venugopal, after discussing the matter, may send his suggestions to the government and the Attorney General will have them examined by it,” the Bench said, while giving them time till February to finalise the suggestion to improve the guidelines.

With the appointment of 17 judges to the Madras High Court, its strength would go up to 39 but still 11 short of the sanctioned strength of 49. Similarly, Bar associations from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh also pointed out that 21 and 25 vacancies in Patna and Allahabad High Courts, respectively, had been lying unfilled for quite some time.

When the AG said there was no need to fill the vacancies in Allahabad High Court beyond 80, as it had never gone beyond this level though the sanctioned strength was 95, the Bench took objection to it, asking why the posts should remain vacant.

“We have come to know that in Allahabad High Court 18 years old criminal appeals are yet to be decided. It is a matter of shame,” the Chief Justice observed.

On the question of relaxing the age limit for appointment of a judge from the members of the Bar, the Bench said: “Acceptance of a person for appointment could be considered at less than 45 years of age, it could be 38 years, 40 years or 42 years.”

“Wherever there is lacunae or further guidelines are to be issued, nobody will disagree with it. We are not talking about the Madras High Court alone, there are vacancies lying in other High Courts as well,” the Bench said agreeing with the Venugopal’s contention that there was urgent need for “reframing” of the guidelines.

As per the latest data placed by the Law Ministry before Parliament last week on the status of vacancies, 139 posts of judges were vacant in 21 high courts.