The Bombay High Court (File)Chief Justice Dipankar Datta of the Bombay High Court on Monday recused himself from hearing a plea seeking to expedite the process of appointment of HC judges.
CJ Datta recused himself as besides being administrative head of the HC, he also heads the collegium – the body of judges that makes recommendation of appointment of HC judges to the Supreme Court collegium.
“Place this petition before a bench of which one of us (Chief Justice) is not a member,” a bench of CJ Datta and Justice Madhav J Jamdar noted in its order.
The PIL filed by law professor Sharmila Ghuge sought that till the sanctioned strength of 94 judges is reached in Bombay HC, retired judges could be brought in on ad hoc basis. The plea also sought that the HC should comply with SC guidelines in the Lok Prahari vs Union of India order, which spoke of the methodology for appointment of judges – suggesting dispensing with consultation with the Intelligence Bureau or other agencies and initiation of recommendation process three months before the retirement of judges.
The plea further said that the SC had also suggested having two to five ad hoc judges per HC. It said that at present, there are 62 judges in the HC, including 44 permanent and 18 additional judges. Nearly 34 per cent of the seats are vacant. While 2,31,401 civil cases have been pending for more than five years, the figure for criminal cases is 33,353.
In June, CJ Datta had recused himself from hearing another PIL seeking permanent mechanism to fill up vacancies of judges in the High Court.