Chandigarh, July 2
The crisis over selection of judges for the Punjab and Haryana High Court has deepened.
The administrative committee of five judges was scheduled to meet this afternoon under the chairmanship of High Court Chief Justice Vijender Jain. The purpose was to interview the candidates for filling up over a score of vacancies of Additional District and Session Judges in Punjab. But, the CJ dissociated himself from the selection process and stayed away from the meeting.
All eyes were on the meeting as the committee members were to convene for the first time after the differences between the CJ and other judges manifested themselves over the selections.
Before today’s meeting, speculation was rife at the Bar that the differences had been ironed out; and the CJ would interview the candidates with other committee members.
The Bar was also of the belief that with the differences over, the CJ and collegium members would meet on July 4 for finalising the list of advocates to be elevated as HC judges. But the fact that the crisis is nowhere near resolution became apparent when the CJ stayed away from the meeting to select the candidates.
This has ramifications. It means that the judges are still divided and the collegium, in all probability, will not meet in the near future for finalising the list of advocates for elevation. In fact, no date for the meeting of the collegium has so far been fixed.
It is believed that the CJ took the decision to dissociate himself in wake of the controversy over the selections; and the date for convening the meeting. The CJ initially wanted the interviews to be held during the summer break in June. But two committee members — Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel — were not in favour of it and wanted these to be postponed to first week of July.
Whatever the reason, their disinclination to interview the candidates is believed to have enraged the CJ. He took the unprecedented step to replace the committee by asking all the HC judges to attend a special full-court meeting, but only 16 out of 42 Judges turned up for it. As 26 judges chose to keep away for one reason or the other, the quorum remained incomplete. The administrative committee could not be reconstituted and the meeting was postponed till today.
This afternoon, the committee met, but under the chairmanship of first pusnie, Justice J.S. Khehar. For completing the quorum, Justice Ashutosh Mohunta was included in the committee.
Notably, the appointments of HC Judges and the Additional District and Sessions Judges have generally been controversial in Punjab and the subject of considerable speculation at the Bar. And it seems that the present row over selections between the CJ and a section of other senior judges is heading towards a stalemate. Chief Justice Jain is to retire early next month.
