New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday (January 30) kept in abeyance some paragraphs of its earlier 2021 judgment and relaxed the condition that the ad-hoc judges as per the Article 224 of the Constitution can be appointed only if the vacancies are more than 20 percent of the total sanctioned strength.
A bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna, Justice BR Gavai and Justice Surya Kant was hearing a plea on the issue of pending appointments of ad-hoc judges in various high courts.
What did the apex court say?
“We are inclined to keep the observations from the conditions in para 43, 54, 55 of the order and judgement dated April 28, 2021 that recourse to the appointment of ad-hoc judges under article 244A should not be made unless 80% of the sanctioned strength is already either recommended or working. In other words, the requirement that vacancies should not be more than 20% shall be kept in abeyance,” the bench said.
Each high court shall keep appointment of ad-hoc judges to two to five in number: Apex Court
The bench said that each high court shall keep the appointment of ad-hoc judges to two to five in number but not exceeding 10% of the sanctioned strength of the high court and the ad-hoc judges will sit in a bench presiding over by a sitting judge of the high court and decide pending criminal appeals.
The bench said that the judgement April 28, 2021 judgment refers to the unprecedented situation due to backlog of cases pending in various high courts and that any constitution has to be dynamic and must subserve and endeavour to serve an existing problem.
There has been increase in pendency levels in high courts, apex court noted
The bench noted that the recent data indicates there has been increase in pendency levels in high courts and in almost all the high courts, more than 62,000 cases are pending as of January 25, 2025 of which more than 18 Lakh cases are criminal and more than 44,000 are civil cases.
The bench had last week suggested appointing retired judges on ad-hoc basis temporarily to deal with the growing backlog of pending criminal cases before several high courts.
The apex court had in its April 28, 2021 judgment had issued directions for the appointment of ad-hoc judges in various high courts as per Article 224A and had said that the appointment of ad-hoc judges should not be made unless 80% of the sanctioned strength is already either recommended or working.
