Dr Asangba Tzudir
After Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi wrote a letter to PM Modi requesting him to initiate a motion in Parliament for removal of Allahabad High Court’s Justice S N Shukla, on merited charges of serious judicial irregularities, he once again wrote three letters to PM Narendra Modi seeking for an increase in the number of Supreme Court Judges saying that there was a pendency of 58,669 cases, the number of which is increasing due to the filing of more fresh cases.
In the letters, according to the Outlook report, Gogoi had requested to increase the number of judges, and also to consider bringing a constitutional amendment to raise the retirement age of high court judges from the present 62 years to 65 years. Further, he brought in context those years (1988, 2009) in which the judge strength was increased which happened at an interval of two decades, and keeping in view the need for clearing the backlog cases pending over the years, he had requested for making tenure appointments of retired apex court judges and high court judges. Such practices are permissible under Articles 128 and 224A of the constitution. His requests were also substantiated by the present vacancy situation of 399 posts which is 37% of sanctioned judge strength and which needs to be filled immediately.
If the vacancy continues, then raising the retirement age to 65 might not only bring at par with that of Supreme Court Judges but also improve the vacancy situation while enabling their rich experience to be utilized for a longer period of time. Further, it may also help the lower courts function better and effectively. As reported in The Wire, the CJI is also learnt to have stated that the inadequate judge strength is also preventing him from constituting five-judge constitution benches to adjudicate “cases involving substantial questions of law or interpretation of constitutional provisions.”
Considering the fact that the high rate of pendency in the courts only weakens justice delivery mechanism with undue delays, it further undermines the entire criminal justice system whose value is further degraded. A TOI report says that 26 cases have been pending for 25 years, 100 cases for 20 years, 593 cases for 15 years and 4,977 cases for 10 years. As such, in the context of the changing times, the nature of the various backlog cases may get more complex making it more difficult for delivering justice not to mention those who may be wrongly implicated.
While timely appointment in the current scenario requires urgent consideration, it needs to be seen that appointments, promotions and retirements must be planned in a proper manner and in advance considering the huge number of pending backlog cases. As of now CJI Gogoi’s letter needs to be merited to ensure smooth functioning and timely delivery of justice.
(Dr Asangba Tzudir writes a weekly guest editorial for The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
