New Delhi: Chief Justice B.R. Gavai-led Supreme Court collegium has cleared the appointment of a retired Delhi district judge as a judge of the high court. The three-member panel approved the name of Vimal Kumar Yadav, who demitted office in January as the district judge of the Patiala House Court, for promotion.
If the Centre accepts the recommendation and notifies Yadav’s name, he will serve as a judge of the high court for 18 months.
The Delhi High Court had recommended Yadav’s appointment as a HC judge last year, but the SC collegium led by then CJI D.Y. Chandrachud did not give a go-ahead. Sources in the Supreme Court collegium told ThePrint the Centre returned Yadav’s file to the collegium, suggesting it reconsider the decision.
“Since he was due for retirement in January this year, the Delhi HC had forwarded its proposal to elevate Yadav. The proposal had reached the top court collegium well in time. However, in view of the negative opinion by the consultee judges—judges elevated from the Delhi HC to the SC—his name was not cleared,” one of the sources quoted above said.
A consultee judge’s inputs on a potential candidate for HC judgeship is crucial in the appointment process.
However, the Centre chose to return Yadav’s file to the collegium since his Intelligence Bureau (IB) report did not indicate any wrongdoing on his part as a district judge. “This time, after perusing the IB report and other inputs, the collegium felt that injustice had been done to this judge. Since his IB report gave him a clean image, the collegium decided to clear him,” the source added.
It’s very rare for the SC collegium to recommend a retired district judge as a judge of high court. In April 2023, the panel had appointed retired district judge Roopesh Chandra Varshney to Madhya Pradesh HC.
It had then cited legitimate expectation and delay in the selection process that denied the judge elevation at the appropriate time. The judge, who joined the judicial service on 18 September 1987, went on to serve as a HC judge for two years.
Till then there were only two instances of retired judges being appointed, and incidentally both were for the Supreme Court. Justices Fathima Beevi and Bahrul Islam were nominated as SC judges months after their retirements as high court judges.
In February 2018, the Supreme Court had ruled that retired judicial officers can be appointed as judges of the high court under Article 217(2)(a) of the Constitution. It also ordered that additional judges can be appointed for a period of less than two years under Article 224.
Article 217 (2) outlines the qualifications for appointment as a judge of a high court.
Article 224 deals with the appointment of additional and acting judges in high courts. Under this, the President can appoint duly qualified persons as additional judges for a temporary period (not exceeding two years) to address increased workload or arrears of work.
(Edited by Ajeet Tiwari)
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