SC frames new norms to evaluate work of HC Additional Judge

SC frames new norms to evaluate work of HC Additional Judge

Context:

• The Supreme Court forms new norms to evaluate the work of High Court Judges.

Who are the Additional Judges of High Court?

• The additional judges are often appointed in order to dispose of the arrears cases.
• Such appointments are temporary and are terminable after disposal of arrears cases.

Appointment of Additional Judges of High Court:

• The appointment of additional judges takes place under these situations:
• If by reason of any temporary increase in the business of High Court or by reason of arrears of work therein, it appears to the President that the number of the Judges of that Court should be for the time being increased, the President may appoint duly qualified persons to be additional Judges of the Court for such period not exceeding two years as he may specific.
• When any Judge of a High Court other than the Chief Justice is by reason of absence or for any other reason unable to perform the duties of his office or is appointed to act temporarily as Chief Justice, the President may appoint a duly qualified person to act as a Judge of that Court until the permanent Judge has resumed his duties.
• No person appointed as an additional or acting Judge of a High Court shall hold office after attaining the age of sixty-two years.

Permanent judges of the High Court:

• There is no fixed minimum number of judges for the High Courts.
• High Courts are headed by a Chief Justice.
• The Chief Justices are ranked fourteenth (in their state) and seventeenth (outside their state) in the Indian order of precedence.

Appointments:

• The Chief Justice of a High Court is appointed by the President in consultation with the Chief Justice of India and the Governor of the State.
• While appointing other judges of the High Court, the President consults the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the Governor of the State and the Chief Justice of the concerned High Court.
• The Chief Justices are ranked fourteenth (in their state) and seventeenth (outside their state) in the Indian order of precedence.

What was the earlier practice since 2010?

• Previously, there used to be a professional evaluation of Additional Judges.
• The evaluation is done by the Judges of the High Court itself.
• This practice has been in place since 2010.

What are the latest Supreme Court guidelines?

• As per the guidelines in October 2010, a committee was to be constituted by High Court Chief Justices for evaluating the judgments of Additional Judges.
• Since it was a committee of High Court Judges, this was seen as a kind of professional review.
• In March, 2017 the Collegium ended this practice.
• Most recently, while reviving the system of professional evaluation, the Collegium’s decision on rejects peer review, as the committee will now comprise Supreme Court Judges.
• Significantly, the government had recently urged the Collegium to have a relook at the decision to end the practice of evaluating the performance of Additional Judges.

What are the advantages of the change in evaluation?

• Biasness:  The Supreme Court judges who have been consulted with regard to recruitment of the Additional Judges won’t be part of the committee.
• So there is less chance of evaluating a biased decision.
• Less chance corruption: The evaluation is expected to be free from corruption as it is will not be done by the in-house judges.
• More strict and concrete: The evaluation is also expected to be more strict, concrete and precise.