Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi has written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking to increase the strength of judges and raise the retirement age of high court judges to 65 years.
Gogoi has also urgedthe prime minister to make tenure appointments of retired apex court judges andhigh court judges under Articles 128 and 224A of the Constitution respectivelyto clear backlog of cases pending for years.
The CJI, who wrote three letters to the PM, said there was apendency of 58,669 cases in the top court and the number was increasing due tofiling of more fresh cases.
Due to paucity of judges, the required number ofConstitution benches to decide important cases involving questions of law werenot being formed, the CJI said.
“You would recall that way back in 1988, about threedecades ago, the judge strength of the SC was increased from 18 to 26, and thenagain after two decades in 2009, it was increased to 31, including the CJI, toexpedite disposal of cases to keep pace with the rate of institution,” hewrote.
“I request you to kindly consider, on top priority, toaugment the judge-strength in the SC appropriately so that it can function moreefficiently and effectively as it will go a long way to attain ultimate goal ofrendering timely justice to the litigant public,” Gogoi wrote.
He said that though the size of the feeder cadre of chiefjustice and judges of the high courts has increased in the past yet thestrength has not been increased proportionally in the top court.
In his second letter, the CJI urged Modi to considerbringing a constitutional amendment to increase the retirement age of highcourt judges from 62 to 65 years.
“One of the prime reasons why we are not able tocontain the ever-growing pendency is shortage of HC judges. At present, 399posts, or 37 per cent of sanctioned judge-strength, are vacant. The existingvacancies need to be filled immediately. However, despite best efforts put inby all stakeholders, it has not been possible to appoint judges to bring theworking judge-strength anywhere close to the sanctioned judge-strength,”Gogoi wrote.
The CJI also wrote that the retirement age of high courtjudges should be raised by three years to 65 years.
“This, in turn, would help in improving the vacancyposition and consequently reducing pendency of cases. This would also be inconsonance with the (repeated) recommendations made by parliamentary standingcommittees,” he wrote.
Gogoi further said, “A judge takes time to evolve andby the time he is in a position to put innovative thoughts based on richexperience to practice, he finds himself nearing retirement. This can beavoided if the age of retirement is raised to an appropriate level so that hisvast experience, deeper insight and expertise can be utilised for a longerperiod.””In my view also, if retired HC judges areconsidered for appointment in tribunals beyond the age of 62 years, they maycontinue in HCs up to 65 years. The proposal suggested will ensure continuedavailability of more experiences judges for a longer tenure,” he wrote.