APPOINTMENT
OF HC JUDGES - POLITY
News:
Four High Courts get new
Chief Justices
What's
in the news?
● The
President appointed new Chief Justices to four High Courts.
● Justice
Sunita Agarwal has been made the new Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court.
She will be the only woman Chief Justice of a High Court.
Key
takeaways:
● Justice
Alok Aradhe is the new Chief Justice of the Telangana High Court.
● Justice
Subhasis Talapatra as the Chief Justice of the Orissa High Court.
● Justice
Ashish Jitendra Desai will take over as the new Chief Justice of the Kerala
High Court.
Appointment
of High Court Judges:
● Article 217
of the Constitution of India provides the appointment and conditions of the
office of a judge of a High Court.
● The
Judges of a High Court are appointed by the President.
● The
President appoints the chief justice after consulting
with the Chief Justice of India and the governor of the state in question.
● The
chief justice of the relevant high court is also consulted for the appointment
of additional judges.
○ Supreme Court Collegium:
Chief Justice and four of the senior most judges.
○ High Court collegium:
Chief Justice and four of the seniors most judges.
● In
the case of a common high court for
two or more states, the president consults with the governors of all the states
involved.
● The
salaries and allowances of the High Court Judges are paid from the State Consolidated Fund.
Qualifications:
A person to be appointed as a judge of a high court,
should have the following qualifications:
● He
must be an Indian citizen.
● Must
have served in a judicial capacity in India for at least ten years.
● For
at least 10 years, he must have worked as an advocate in a High Court or two or
more such Courts in succession.
● It
is clear from the above that the Constitution does not specify a minimum age for nomination as a high court
judge.
● Furthermore,
unlike the Supreme Court, the Constitution contains no provision for the nomination of a prominent jurist to a high court
bench.
Oath
of a Judge of a High Courts:
● Under
Article 219, a person appointed as a High Court Judge must take and swear an
oath or affirmation before the Governor of the State before taking office.
Tenure
of Judges
● The
tenure of a high court judge is not
specified by the Constitution.
● However,
it makes the following provision in this regard:
○ He
holds office until the age of 62.
Any doubts about his age must be resolved by the president after consulting
with the Chief Justice of India, and the president's judgement is definitive.
Removal
of Judges:
● A
high court judge may be removed from office by an order of the President.
● The
President may issue the removal order only when an address from Parliament is
given to him in the same session.
● A
special majority of each House of
Parliament must approve the address (i.e., a majority of the total membership
of that House and majority of not less than two-thirds of the members of that
House present and voting).
○ Removal
is based on either proved misbehaviour
or incapacity.
● As
a result, a high court judge can be removed in the same way and on the same
grounds as a Supreme Court justice.
● The
Judges Enquiry Act (1968) governs
the mechanism for removing a high court judge through the impeachment process.
● The
procedure for impeaching a high court judge is the same as that for a Supreme
Court judge.
● It
is interesting to know that no judge of a high court has been impeached so far.
Transfer
of Judges:
● After
consultation with the Chief Justice of India, the President may transfer a
judge from one high court to another.
● On
transfer, he is entitled to receive, in addition to his pay, such compensation allowance as Parliament may
set.
● The
Supreme Court determined in 1977 that the transfer of high court justices may
be used only in extraordinary circumstances, in the public interest, and not as
a form of punishment.