5 lawyers administered oath as additional judges of Punjab and Haryana High Court

Saurabh Malik

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, October 29

Advocates Vikas Suri, Sandeep Moudgil, Vinod Sharma Bhardwaj, Pankaj Jain and Jasjit Singh Bedi were on Friday administered oath as additional judges of the Punjab and Haryana High Court by Chief Justice, Justice Ravi Shanker Jha, pursuant to their elevation.

At a simple ceremony attended by sitting judges of the high court, the judges swore to "bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution of India as by law established". The number of judges has now gone up to 50 against the sanctioned 85.

Their names were cleared for elevation by the Supreme Court collegium in September after being forwarded by the Centre in April this year. The Punjab and Haryana High Court collegium had initially made the recommendation for their elevation in August last year. 

Suri and Bhardwaj have been practising on the civil side and dealing with constitutional matter. Among other things, Suri has been conducting cases for the Punjab and Haryana High Court at Chandigarh and its subordinate courts since March 2010. Jain has been UT senior standing counsel with proficiency in service law and other civil matters. Bedi, on the other hand, is renowned for his practice on the criminal side and has been handling high-profile cases as well. Moudgil has been representing Haryana as an Additional Advocate-General.

National Judicial Data Grid — the monitoring tool to identify, manage and reduce pendency of cases — indicates the pendency of more than 4 lakh cases in the High Court. As many as seven judges have retired this year and another is scheduled to retire in December. Another five judges are retiring next year.

The process of appointing judges is lengthy and time-consuming. Once cleared by the states and the governors, the file containing the names with intelligence bureau reports is placed before the Supreme Court collegium when it meets. The names cleared for elevation are then sent to the Union Law Ministry before their warrants of appointment are signed by the President.