Can’t direct 50 per cent HC Judges should be from District Judiciary; but at least 1/3rd should be from Judicial Services: SC

STATE TIMES NEWS

JAMMU: SC directed that the High Courts should take steps to fill-up vacancies in judicial quota before they arise, as Judges from service normally get short tenure. Recently, the Supreme Court refused to issue directions to the High Courts to fill 50 per cent of the seats in the respective High Courts from the Bench (service judges, district judiciary), if vacancy from the Bar quota lies vacant for more than 6 months. A Bench comprising Justice B R Gavai, Justice Vikram Nath and Justice Sanjay Karol said that it was not inclined to grant the same noting and said, “We are afraid, as to whether such a direction can be issued on the judicial side”. However, it gave permission to the applicants to approach the appropriate forum with their grievance. Considering another prayer in the application, the Bench clarified that at least one-third of the total vacancies in all High Courts should be filled up from the district judiciary. It noted, “We would expect the High Court to strictly maintain that ratio”. In February, 2023, the Bench had expressed its prima facie view that, the present ratio of 1:3 between the judges who are elevated from District Judiciary to the High Court from the service cadre and those who are elevated from the Bar, needs to be maintained. The application was moved by the Judicial Service Association of Delhi.
The prayer with respect to issuing of directions to the High Court to fill the vacancies from judicial quota expeditiously was accepted by the Bench. It noted that, most of the time, the tenure of the service Judges in the High Court is only a few years. In view of the same, it requested the High Courts to take immediate steps and recommend names for elevation of judges from the district judiciary prior to the occurrence of vacancies. The same would ensure that there is no delay in elevation from service cadre.
Additionally, the Bench earmarked seven important issues for the Amicus Curiae, Senior Advocate, Siddharth Bhatnagar and the Counsels for the State Government, Union of India and the High Courts to ponder over. The flagged issues are as under -whether the 10 per cent quota reserved for Limited Departmental Competitive Examination (for short, ‘LDCE’) for promotion to Higher Judicial Service i.e. cadre of District Judge, needs to be restored to 25 per cent as determined by the Court in the case of Judicial Services. Supreme Court refuses to order that 50 per cent of High Court judges should be recruited from judicial services. The Court said that ratio between judges from district judiciary and from bar be maintained at least as 1:3 and issued directions to speed up the filling up of vacancies from judicial quota- the tenure of the Service Judges in the High Court, most of the times, is only few years. So, High Courts were requested to take immediate steps in recommending names for elevation from the service cadre prior to the occurrence of such vacancies, so that there is no delay in elevation of the Judges from the service cadre.