SC Guidelines for “Appointment of Ad-hoc Judges” in HCs
Red Book
Red Book

Mains Guidance Program (MGP) for UPSC CSE 2026, Cohort-1 starts 11th February 2025. Registrations Open Click Here to know more and registration.

What is the News?

The Supreme Court has cleared the way for the appointment of retired judges as ad-hoc judges in High Courts under Article 224A of the Constitution. This has been done to deal with the increasing backlog of cases in High Courts.

Guidelines: For the appointment of ad hoc judges, the Supreme Court laid down several guidelines. The guidelines are:

Appointment of ad-hoc Judges: The Chief Justice of a High Court may initiate the process of recommending an ad-hodge judge if:

  1. The number of judges’ vacancies is more than 20% of the sanctioned strength
  2. Cases in a particular category are pending for over five years.
  3. More than 10% of pending cases are over five years old or
  4. The percentage of the rate of disposal is lower than the institution of the cases either in a particular subject matter or generally in the court.
Appointment Procedure:
  • The appointments can follow the procedure laid down in the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for the appointment of judges.
  • Since the nominees have been judges before, the need to refer the matter to the IB or other agencies would not arise, shortening the time period.
  • The Court observed that a period of three months would be sufficient to complete the appointment process.

Number of ad-hoc judges

  • The number of ad hoc Judges should be in the range of 2 to 5 in a High Court.
Role of Ad-hoc Judges:
  • Since the objective was to clear the backlog, the ad-hoc judges can be assigned more than five-year-old cases. This would also not affect the High Court Chief Justice’s discretion to allot any other cases.
  • A division bench constituting of only ad-hoc judges can also hear old cases.
  • Further, the SC barred ad-hoc appointees from performing any other legal work – advisory, arbitration, or appearing in court for clients.
  • SC also stated that ad-hoc appointments cannot be a substitute for regular vacancies. Thus, article 224A can only be used when recommendations for at least 20% of regular vacancies have been made. And now their appointments are awaited.

Source: Indian Express


A Lost Opportunity to Reform the Educational System

 


Discover more from Free UPSC IAS Preparation Syllabus and Materials For Aspirants

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Print Friendly and PDF
Blog
Academy
Community