(MENAFN- Live Mint) The Centre on Tuesday notified the appointment of two new judges to the Delhi high court and one new judge to the Uttarakhand high court.
Two advocates, Ajay Digpaul and Harish Vaidyanathan Shankar, will adjudicate matters in the Delhi high court, and judicial officer Ashish Naithani will take charge as a judge of the Uttarakhand high court, the Union law and justice Ministry said in a statement.
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The Supreme Court Collegium, which decides the appointment of judges in the country, confirmed the appointment of the two advocates as judges in the Delhi high court in August 2024, while the appointment of Naithani to the Uttarakhand high court was confirmed on 22 December.
Ajay Digpaul has 31 years of experience in several branches of law, including civil, criminal, constitutional, labour, company, service and commercial, with a specialization in civil and criminal cases, the collegium said.
Similarly, the collegium lauded advocate Shankar's 180 reportable judgements and approved his assent to the position of a judge at the Delhi high court.
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In August 2024, the collegium also proposed the names of two more candidates for judges at the Delhi high court. Arbitration lawyer Tejas Karia and intellectual property rights lawyer Shwetasree Majumder had been recommended along with advocates Digpaul and Shankar. However, the notification from the Union government appointing Karia and Majumder as judges in the Delhi high court is still awaited.
The appointment of judges assumes importance as there were 345 vacancies of judges across the country's high courts as of June 2024, according to data from the department of justice, indicating roughly a third of the high court judges positions being vacant.
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As per routine procedure, high courts should make recommendations to fill a position at least six months before the vacancy is created. "However, this time limit is rarely observed," said Union law and justice minister Arjun Ram Meghwal in a Rajya Sabha disclosure in December 2024.
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