Sign In
Learn bits
Polity & Governance
Mahesh

04/02/25 10:48 AM IST

Appointment of ad-hoc judges to High Courts

In News
  • To address the growing backlog of criminal cases, the Supreme Court on January 30, 2025, allowed High Courts to appoint retired judges on an ad-hoc basis, provided they hear only criminal appeals as part of a Bench led by a sitting judge.
Ad-hoc Judges
  • Article 224-A, introduced by the Constitution (Fifteenth Amendment) Act, 1963, allows the appointment of retired judges to High Courts on an ad-hoc basis.
  • Such appointments require the consent of both the retired judge and the President of India.
  • These judges receive allowances as determined by the President’s order and exercise the same jurisdiction, powers, and privileges as a sitting High Court judge.
  • The detailed procedure for such appointments is outlined in the 1998 Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), formulated following the Supreme Court’s ruling in Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association v. Union of India (1993), which established the collegium system for judicial appointments.
  • As per the MoP, once a retired judge consents to the appointment, the Chief Justice of the High Court submits the judge’s name and the proposed tenure to the State’s Chief Minister.
  • The Chief Minister then forwards the recommendation to the Governor, who relays it to the Union Minister of Law and Justice.
  • The Union Law Minister consults the CJI for advice, after which the recommendation is sent to the Prime Minister.
  • The Prime Minister then advises the President, and once the President approves, the appointment is finalised.
  • Finally, the Chief Minister issues the formal notification in the Gazette of India.
Conditions for creating such appointments
  • In Lok Prahari, the Court identified specific circumstances that could warrant the appointment of ad-hoc judges in certain High Courts.
  • At the time, nearly 40% of judicial positions across all High Courts were vacant.
  • The Court also referred to Law Commission reports from 1979, 1988, and 2003, which advocated for the temporary appointment of retired judges as an effective measure to address the mounting backlog of cases.
  • However, the Supreme Court expressed concerns that Article 224A could result in “inaction in making recommendations” for regular judicial appointments. 
  • Consequently, the Court clarified that ad-hoc judges can only be appointed when recommendations for filling less than 20% of vacancies have not been made, after considering both the number of sitting judges and the pending proposals for judicial appointments.
  • The Court outlined several “trigger points” for such appointments, although the list is not exhaustive.
  • These include: 1) If vacancies in a High Court exceed 20% of its sanctioned strength;
  • 2) If cases in a specific category have been pending for more than five years;
  • 3) If more than 10% of the High Court’s cases are pending for over five years;
  • 4) If the case disposal rate is lower than the rate at which new cases are filed (case clearance rate).
  • The Court also recommended that each Chief Justice form a panel of retired judges, along with soon-to-retire judges, for potential ad-hoc appointments.
  • The past performance of these judges, in terms of both case quality and quantity, should be carefully evaluated.
  • Typically, ad-hoc judges should be appointed for terms of 2 to 3 years, with 2 to 5 ad-hoc judges in each High Court.
  • It was further underscored that the entire appointment process should be completed within a period of three-months. 
Allowances
  • In Lok Prahari, the Court ruled that ad-hoc judges should receive the same pay and allowances as permanent High Court judges, excluding the pension. 
  • These payments are to be drawn from the Consolidated Fund of India.
  • The Court also stated that ad-hoc judges should either be provided with rent-free accommodation or given a housing allowance, similar to what permanent judges receive.
Recent orders
  • The CJI-led Bench noted that, as of January 25, 2025, there are 62 lakh pending cases across High Courts according to data from the National Judicial Data Grid.
  • Of these, over 18.2 lakh are criminal cases, while more than 44 lakh are civil cases.
  • To tackle this growing pendency, the Court decided to set aside the condition laid down in Lok Prahari, which permitted the appointment of ad-hoc judges only when judicial vacancies exceeded 20% of the sanctioned strength.
  • It further ruled that ad-hoc judges can only hear criminal appeals and must do so as part of a Bench led by a sitting judge.
  • Additionally, the number of ad-hoc judges cannot exceed 10% of a High Court’s sanctioned judicial strength, meaning each High Court can have only 2 to 5 such appointments.
  • There have been only three documented instances of ad-hoc judicial appointments.
  • In 1972, Justice Suraj Bhan was appointed to the Madhya Pradesh High Court shortly after his retirement to adjudicate election petitions.
  • Justice P. Venugopal was similarly appointed to the Madras High Court in 1982.
  • More recently, in 2007, Justice O.P. Srivastava was appointed to the Allahabad High Court to preside over the Ayodhya title suits.
Source- The Hindu

More Related Current Affairs View All

04 Feb

Newly discovered asteroid 2024 YR4 may hit Earth in 2032.

'A newly discovered asteroid — called 2024 YR4 — has slightly more than 1% chance of crashing into Earth in 2032, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) o

Read More

04 Feb

ELS cotton

'ELS cotton refers to cotton fibers with a length exceeding 1 3/8 inches or 34.925 mm.'  This makes it significantly longer than regular cotton fibers.   ELS cotton i

Read More

04 Feb

Production of ethanol

'Union Minister Nitin Gadkari said that India will achieve its target of 20% ethanol blending of petrol in the next two months, at least a year ahead of what was originally planned

Read More

India’s First Ai-Driven Magazine Generator

Generate Your Custom Current Affairs Magazine using our AI in just 3 steps