With Over Five Lakh Cases Pending In High Courts, SC To Call Back Retired Judges To Boost Justice Dispensation

With the High Courts of different states being laden with huge pendency of cases, the Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday (25 March) in principle decided to resort to a never-before-used constitutional provision which allows it to engage retired High Court judges to help deal with the pile of pending cases in the various High Courts, reports Times of India.

The case pendency in the High Courts is touching half a million mark, a bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde and Justices Surya Kant and Sanjay K Kaul have looked towards Article 224A of the Constitution and sought response from the High Courts on framing the standard operating procedures to recall the retired judges.

The entire exercise will be completed by 8 April. Decreeing this, the bench also said that since the retired judges will be given a specific tenure to adjudicate old cases and as they will be regarded as the junior-most in the hierarchy of the court, it will not cause any heartburn among the already serving judges.

Meanwhile, the bench also added that this shall not mean that the regular appointment of judges would be stalled, slowed down or substituted.

The bench also noted that the pendency has gone beyond manageable limits, stressing that there are cases in certain High Courts which have been pending for 25-30 years. It emphasised that the matter has begun to cause all kinds of problems in justice dispensation.