New Delhi, May 30: The government on Tuesday cleared the appointment of Justice Krishna Murari of the Allahabad HC as the chief justice of Punjab and Haryana HC and the President is expected to issue the warrant of appointment soon.
Along with Justice Murari’s appointment as Punjab and Haryana HC CJ, the government also cleared the appointment of 14 judges to various HCs, in addition to confirming the appointment of ad hoc judges of HCs as permanent ones. This is the largest number of appointments made this year. Madras HC, which has 56 judges as against the sanctioned strength of 75, got seven more judges in P T Usha, Subramonium Prasad, N Anand Venketesh, M Nirmal Kumar, Krishnan Ramaswami, C Sarvanan and G K Elanthirayan.
The Madhya Pradesh HC, which has 31 judges against the sanctioned strength of 53, got five more judges — Sanjay Dwivedi, Akhil Kumar Srivastava, Braj Kishore Srivastava, Rajendra Kumar Srivastava and Mohd Sahim Anwar. Karnataka HC, with 32 vacancies in a sanctioned strength of 62, got two new judges Mohd Nawaz and H T Narendra Prasad.
The higher judiciary, facing a monstrous backlog of cases, is under strain because of huge vacancies in judges’ posts. The Supreme Court, with a sanctioned strength of 31 judges, including the CJI, has seven vacancies.
The SC collegium is considering names of many chief justices and senior judges of HCs for appointment as SC judges. The names, once finalised, will be sent along with the reiteration of Uttarakhand CJ K MJoseph. Justice Joseph’s name was returned by the government for reconsideration citing lack of seniority.
Source Times of India
