A retired judge and two advocates on Thursday moved the High Court of Karnataka, through a PIL petition, seeking a direction to the Union government to speed up the process of appointment of judges to the High Court as expeditiously as possible but within a time frame.
A Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice H.G. Ramesh and Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar, before whom the petition came up for hearing, has said that the petition would be heard by another Division Bench, which will not have “acting Chief Justice” as its member. The acting Chief Justice, who is the present administrative heard of the High Court, has recused from hearing as High Court has been made as a party in the petition.
The petition has been filed by A.N. Venugopala Gowda, a retired judge of the High Court, and advocates S. Basavaraj and B.M. Arun.
Pointing out that the High Court, at present, has only 25 judges against the sanctioned strength of 62, the petitioners have stated that the present strength of judges is inadequate to deal with the large number of litigations as there are 28,431 criminal cases and 2,83,230 civil cases pending for adjudication.
Despite 25 judges working to their full capacity with dedication, the sitting judges are finding it hard to dispose off pending cases and thus litigants were suffering beyond comprehension, the petitioners claimed.
Pointing out that the last appointment to the post of judges from amongst the member of Bar was made in January 2015, and from the cadre of district judge cadre was made in February this year with the appointment of only two judges, the petitioners contended that having regard to the factual scenario, there is “a breach of constitutional obligation” as the Union government has not filled up 37 vacant posts of judges in the High Court.
The courts lacking in manpower is an abuse of Article 38 of the Constitution and the situation requires to be remedied by expediting the process of appointment of judges to the vacant positions, the petitioners stated.
