Centre Appoints 14 New Additional Judges At Bombay High Court

(MENAFN- Live Mint) New Delhi: The central government on Thursday notified the appointment of 14 new additional judges in the Bombay high court.

The new appointees are Siddheshwar Sundarrao Thombre, Mehroz Ashraf Khan Pathan, Ranjitsinha Raja Bhonsale, Nandesh Shankarrao Deshpande, Amit Satyavan Jamsandekar, Ashish Sahadev Chavan, Sandesh Dadasaheb Patil, Vaishali Nimbajirao Patil-Jadhav, Abasaheb Dharmaji Shinde, Shreeram Vinayak Shirsat, Hiten Shamrao Venegavkar, Farhan Parvez Dubash, Rajnish Ratnakar Vyas and Raj Damodar Wakode.

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The Supreme Court collegium had recommended these advocates to become judges at the Bombay high court on 19 August, but the Centre appointed them as additional judges.

Additional judges do not enjoy long-term security in their jobs, and are generally appointed to address temporary backlogs in certain jurisdictions, while the tenure of judges appointed by the government is permanent.

Such deviations from the top court's recommendations are not uncommon, lawyers said.

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"It is routine procedure to appoint new judges, those with no experience on the bench, as additional judges under article 224 of the Constitution, for a period of two years. These members of the judiciary are then scrutinised for their work, and the Supreme Court collegium as well as the government then take a call about their appointment. Every judgement they give is scrutinized," said Satyam Surana, who practices before the Bombay high court.

Judicial appointments by the Centre assume importance given the massive pendency of lawsuits in Indian courts, and the vacancy of judicial offices. There were 345 vacancies of judges across the country's high courts as of June 2024, according to data from the department of justice. This indicates that roughly one-third of high court judge positions was vacant.

Delays in appointments have forced appointees to step down from their positions, despite receiving a nod from the collegium. For instance, on 5 July, intellectual property rights lawyer Shwetasree Majumder withdrew her consent for judgeship after the government did not appoint her as a judge of the Delhi high court after the collegium had recommended her in August last year, reported LiveLaw, a legal news service.

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