New Delhi: In a bid to counter the spiralling pendency of cases, the Supreme Court on Thursday relaxed the conditions to appoint ad-hoc judges’ in various high courts. The ad-hoc judges’ would sit with regular judges in division benches.
The matter came up before a special bench led by Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna and comprising Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant. The bench kept in abeyance a condition, in its April 2021 judgment, that the ad-hoc judges, as per Article 224 of the Constitution, can be appointed only if the vacancies are more than 20 per cent of the sanctioned strength.
Earlier, the apex court had expressed that it would relax certain conditions outlined in an April 2021 judgment for the appointment of ad-hoc judges to the high courts.
Today, the bench passed the direction to ease the appointment of ad-hoc judges considering the high rise in the pendency of cases and added that each high court can appoint two to five judges and in any case, the number should not exceed 10 per cent of the sanctioned strength. The apex court said each high court shall appoint ad hoc judges by taking recourse to Article 224A.
The bench said the memorandum of procedure in place shall be applied and resorted to for such appointments. "If required, this bench shall re-assemble for further directions. Liberty granted to parties to move an application if required," said the bench. "The ad hoc judges will sit in a bench presided over by a sitting judge of the high court and decide pending criminal appeals," said the bench.
In April 2021, in the case of Lok Prahari v. Union of India, the apex court, for the first time, had proposed the appointment of ad-hoc judges to high courts. The apex court, in the same judgment, had cautioned against routinely resorting to appointing judges on an ad hoc basis instead of making regular judge appointments.
