Five advocates to take oath as judges of Punjab and Haryana HC

Saurabh Malik
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, October 27

Five advocates of the Punjab and Haryana High Court will be administered oath as Judges following their elevation.

The advocates to be sworn in are Vikas Suri, Vinod Sharma Bhardwaj, Pankaj Jain,  Jasjit Singh Bedi and Sandeep Moudgil.

With their elevation, the number of Judges will go up to 50 against the sanctioned of 85.

As many as seven Judges have retired this year and another Judge is scheduled to retire in December. Another five Judges are retiring next year.

The problem of plenty, under the circumstances, continues to be a matter of concern for the High Court. National Judicial Data Grid — the monitoring tool to identify, manage and reduce pendency of cases — indicates the pendency of more than 4 lakh cases in the High Court.

The names were cleared for elevation by the Supreme Court collegium in September after being forwarded by the Centre in April this year.

The process of appointing judges is lengthy and time-consuming. Once cleared by the States and the governors, the file containing the names with intelligence bureau reports is placed before the Supreme Court collegium when it meets. The names cleared for elevation are then sent to Union law ministry before their warrants of appointment are signed by the President.