Chandigarh, July 29
Two days before Chief Justice Vijender Jain is to retire, the Punjab and Haryana High Court is finding itself caught in a crisis over the appointment of more judges to the Bench.

It seems that Chief Justice Vijender Jain is determined to go ahead with the process of elevating six District and Sessions Judges to the High Court, despite stiff opposition and dissent by at least two other collegium members.

Available information suggests that the collegium, headed by the Chief Justice, met a few days ago to consider the names of Sessions Judges G.K. Rai, K.K. Garg and Gurdev Singh from Punjab, along with R.K. Gupta, S.K. Sardana and M.S. Sullar from Haryana, but could not take a decision because of the differences.

As the issue came up, collegium member Justice J.S. Khehar expressed his reservations about the suitability of three candidates for promotion. The other collegium member, Justice Mehtab Singh Gill, did not comment on the names, but wrote a two-page dissenting note.

Justice Gill was reportedly of the opinion that the High Court did not have the requisite space for the new judges to sit and hear the cases.

Justice Gill also reportedly referred to a news-report carried in The Tribune on May 3 on how the High Court was striving hard to do justice to its new judges because of infrastructural problems.

The Bar, and the Advocate-General office, believe the Chief Justice, in view of the dissent, may have consulted two other Judges, even if they were not members of the original collegium. In any case, the Chief Justice, while talking to the media this evening at a function, himself confirmed that he had forwarded the names, though he did not mention about who are the judges he consulted before doing so.

It is believed that the file recommending names of the Session Judges for elevation will now be placed, first before the Haryana Governor, and then before the Punjab Governor for consideration, before it is sent to the Supreme Court and the Union Law Ministry.

Interestingly, this is, perhaps, the first time in the recent past that a Chief Justice is pushing for the elevation of Judges at the fag end of his career. He is scheduled to lay down his office upon attaining the age of superannuation on Saturday.

As a matter of convention, the Chief Justice recommends the names of advocates and Session Judges for elevation, only if he knows he will be there to see the list through. No wonder, the issue has become the subject of animated conversations at the Bar and among the sitting Judges of a divided High Court. Also, the Chief Justice has been wanting the interviews for Additional Sessions Judges in Punjab to be held during the summer recess in June. But, two committee members - Justice J.S. Khehar and Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel - wanted these to be postponed to the first week of July.

Whatever the reason, their disinclination to interview the candidates resulted in the Chief Justice taking the unprecedented step of replacing the committee by asking all the High Court Judges to attend a special full-court meeting. The move fell through after 26 Judges out of 42 stayed away from the “full court” meeting for one reason or the other. The interviews were held earlier in July, but the Chief Justice dissociated himself from the process, apparently miffed at the resistance to his proposals Over the months, the Bar was hoping that the crisis would come to a natural end. But, the difference of opinion between the Chief Justice and a section of High Court Judges over the elevation of Session Judges has become worse than before.