Prayagraj: The High Court Bar Association (HCBA), Allahabad, has sent a communication to the President of India, with a copy to the Union law minister and the Chief Justice Of India, expressing strong reservation regarding the proposal accepted by the Supreme Court collegium to appoint five retired Allahabad HC judges on ad-hoc basis in the HC under Article 224-A of the Constitution. Challenging the merit of the names proposed, the HCBA stated that the names “fail to inspire confidence in the ability of the recommended persons to clear the pendency of cases.”In the representation dated Feb 5, the HCBA termed the collegium’s statement “inexplicable” and one which “has been a cause for consternation to the legal fraternity in the state”.The letter cum representation specifically submitted that, if appointments are made from the pool of retired judges, recent retirees will be found to have better and more effective disposal on merits than the chosen five.The HCBA has asserted that the SC collegium’s invocation of Article 224-A of the Constitution of India is in contravention of that provision, which provides that the appointment of an ad hoc judge is the domain of the Chief Justice of the HC with the President’s prior consent.The letter added that the five choices appear to have been picked out of the blue from amongst a pool of retired judges, unaccompanied by any exercise of choosing the best from the available pool of retired judges. “A search on the net shows a minuscule number of cases having been decided by at least four of five judges during their tenure of almost two years as high court judges,” the letter added. Furthermore, the representation argued that vacancies in the HCs across various states should be filled from among eligible lawyers or judicial officers through due process.It said that instead of appointing retired judges by invoking Article 224-A of the Constitution of India, it would have been wholesome to make regular appointments to fill the vacancies.“Appointing five judges from pool of retired judges to fill up any vacancies in the High Court at Allahabad merely deprives eligible persons of the legal fraternity from being appointed to a sensitive constitutional post while the post is filled up by a retired High Court judges whose innings in the system is already complete,” it added.The letter was signed by HCBA’s president Rakesh Pande and secretary Akhilesh Kumar Sharma. tnn
