Names of nine lawyers recommended for appointment as judges

THE CURRENT STRENGTH OF JUDGES AT THE HIGH COURT IS 67. LAST RECOMMENDATION FOR LAWYERS’ ELEVATION AS JUDGES WAS IN MARCH 2022, WHEN 13 NAMES WERE SENT BY THE HIGH COURT

CHANDIGARH: The Punjab and Haryana high court collegium is learnt to have recommended names of nine lawyers for elevation as judges in the high court.

Four lawyers from Haryana are former chairman of Bar Council of Punjab and Haryana, Minderjeet Yadav; senior additional advocate general, Haryana, Pravindra Chauhan; additional advocate general, Haryana, Rajesh Gaur and deputy advocate general, Haryana, Kirti Singh.

Five lawyers from Punjab who have been recommended, include senior advocate and CBI’s counsel in many highprofile cases, Sumeet Goel; former additional advocate general, Punjab, HS Grewal; Rohit Kapoor, former additional advocate general, Punjab Sudipti Sharma and DS Nalwa, former additional advocate general, Haryana.

Nalwa’s name was also sent in 2017.

The high court collegium headed by chief justice RS Jha and comprising two other senior-most judges, is learnt to have met last month and cleared these names for elevations as judges and sent it to both the governments and Supreme Court.

The current strength of judges at the high court is 67 and is not going to change significantly even if all the names are cleared by the apex court and the Central government. Eight of the serving judges are set to retire this year.

The HC has a sanctioned strength of 85 judges.

Last recommendation for lawyers’ elevation as judges was in March 2022, when 13 names were sent by the high court.

As per the national judicial data grid, the pendency of cases at Punjab and Haryana high court is 4.39 lakh.

The pendency on December 31, 2019, was 3.54 lakh cases. The restrictions due to Covid have resulted in a massive increase in the backlog of cases even as the high court got around 20 judges in the past around one year.