No ad hoc appointment of judges till vacancies in High Courts filled up: Government

NEW DELHI: The government has taken a “policy decision” to not appoint retired judges in high courts on adhoc basis unless the existing vacancies (in High Courts) are filled up.

As regards appointment of retired Supreme Court judges in the apex court for quick disposal of cases, the government has drawn out parameters which “require to be addressed” before taking a final decision in this regard, said people with direct knowledge of the matter. Former Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi, in a letter written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June this year, had underscored the need to make tenure appointments of retired Supreme Court and High Court judges in Supreme Court and High Courts respectively to clear backlog of cases hanging fire for years.

While the government has taken a “policy decision” on not appointing ad-hoc Judges (in High Courts) without first filling up existing vacancies in High Courts, the government is yet to take a final call on the issue of appointing retired Supreme Court judges in the Apex Court. The important parameters of appointment of retired SC judges in Supreme Court require consideration of “age, duration of engagement and disengagement, remuneration, performance evaluation, verification on post retirement activities and accountability structure,” said people with direct knowledge of the matter.


Tenure appointments of retired Supreme and High Court judges is allowed under Articles 128 and 224A of the Constitution respectively for disposal of pending cases.

Former CJI Ranjan Gogoi, in a separate letter in June to the prime minister, had also raised concern over the rising menace of pendency in the top Court (58,669).

It might be mentioned here that the idea of appointing retired judges on an ad-hoc basis was mooted in April 2016 during the annual Chief Justices’ Conference.

The idea was initially proposed by the then Law Minister Sadananda Gowda in a letter, dated September 21, 2015, to the then Chief Justice of India (CJI) HL Dattu.