A plea was filed in the Madras High Court today seeking to direct the Secretary General, Supreme Court of India, Union Ministry of Law and Justice, Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary and state Law Department to return the list of names recommended for appointment of High Court Judges sent by the Collegium of High Court here and to redo the list.
The petitioner, S Arivazhagan, Secretry, Madras High Court Advocates Association (MHAA), submitted that the Collegium has recommended nine names for appointment of Judges.
Stating that it is being openly spoken in the bar that some of the judges appointed are "indecisive on account of their non-exposure to various fields of law, on account of sticking to norms of selecting only practicing lawyers to the high office and refusing to recommend the persons who do not have practice", the petitioner said that despite increase in the number of judges, quality and quantity of disposals have remained "unsatisfactory."
"This is mostly on account of the fact that in the collegium system, no yardstick is adopted for selecting suitable candidates. The process of consultation is conspicuously absent, on account of which there appears to be discontentment amongst the members of the public in general and the lawyers and litigants in particular."
According to the petitioner, though the concept of social justice and accommodating men from various classes and assuring them of a seat in the High Court cannot be adjudicated very easily, there is arbitrariness in the process of selection, where it refuses to adopt the rule of reservation.
In the recent past, the number of judges who have been appointed were from the same communities/castes which are already over represented and suppression of number of competent lawyers being available from communities, which are unrepresented since the independence, he contended.
