Top court suggests to Centre to appoint ad-hoc judges to clear pending cases in high courts

In a move to decongest legal traffic in High Courts, the Supreme Court has asked the Centre to elevate top lawyers as ad-hoc judges, as per a Times of India report.

The top court, which sits at the pinnacle of the justice delivery system noted that prominent lawyers are willing to sit on the judge’s chair for a period of 2-3 years, fulfilling their social responsibility.

A bench of justices Sanjay K Kaul, Abhay S Oka and Vikram Nath further noted that the senior lawyers are hesitant to accept permanent judgeship. But as they are willing to take a small detour in their lawyering careers, it would be good to fill up vacancies in the lower court.

Also Read: Rejection of names of HC judges at SC level is 25%: Centre to SC

Additionally, such appointments would go a long way in disposing of cases. Lawyers, appointed as ad-hoc judges, would decide cases in the field of their expertise.

Noting that the process of such appointment is ridden with red tapism, the bench asked the attorney general to ease the process and simplify it.

Also Read: What is the Collegium system?

“Their clearance should not take months but days, because once you let them go for six months or a year, they won’t come back. We also have to look at the fact that in some high courts, the pendency is very high and having criteria of more than 20% vacancies for making recommendation for ad-hoc judges may not help in reducing the pendency of cases in specific subjects,” the publication quoted the bench.

High Courts, have a pendency of roughly 57 lakh cases.