Consider Appointing Ad Hoc Judge Advocates in HCs for 2-3 Years, SC Urges Center | News from India

NEW DELHI: Noting that many prominent lawyers are willing to take a break from their burgeoning law practice for a few years to be appointed ad hoc judges in the high courts as part of their social responsibility, the Supreme Court on Thursday he asked the Center to consider offering them the position of judge for two or three years.
With several high courts reeling under the huge slope of cases and a large number of judicial vacancies, a panel of judges Sanjay K KaulAbhay S Oka e Vikram Nat he said senior lawyers are often unwilling to take the position of permanent judge but are inclined to accept the post of ad hoc judge for a short term.

Reasoning that their appointment would be effective in increasing the resolution rate of cases if they were allowed to decide cases in their field of expertise, the Vigilance Committee asked Attorney General R Venkataramani to explore the idea.
The panel said the process for ad hoc appointment of judges in the high courts is cumbersome, adding that a simpler procedure should be adopted to make it effective and attract lawyers. Also asked the AG and senior solicitor Arvind Datarassisting the court as amicus curiae, to review the memorandum of procedure to suggest measures to simplify the procedure.
“Their clearance should take not months but days, because once you let them go for six months or a year, they will never come back. We also need to consider the fact that in some high courts the slope is very high and having criteria of more than 20% vacancy for making recommendations for ad hoc judges may not help reduce the slope of cases in specific subjects,” the bench said.
The superior court was hearing applications filed by the NGO calling for the effective implementation of the April 2021 verdict for the appointment of ad hoc judges to the high courts to reduce the pending sentence.
On 20 April last year, the supreme court, while calling the stay of about 57 lakh cases in the high courts a “document blast”, activated a “dormant” constitutional provision to pave the way for the appointment of judges of the retired high court as ad hoc ad-judges for two to three years to clear the backlog. Guidelines have also come out to regulate appointments.
The guidelines covered issues such as the trigger point where the nomination process can start, the mandate, the nomination process, salary, benefits, the maximum number of such judges and their role in adjudicating cases.