WHILE cases are piling up in lower judicial courts for scarcity of judges, a good number of judges are serving on deputation in various executive posts breaking the principle of separation of judiciary from executive. A national daily on Monday reported that over 84 judges of subordinate courts are working on non-judicial posts at a time when 132 posts of judges remained vacant in the trial courts. The breaking of the news has come on top of over 30 lakh cases now reportedly pending at lower courts waiting for immediate disposal. The practice of appointing judges to executive posts on deputation, though alluring with more demonstrative power and financial benefits, is a virtual slap on the independence of judiciary and most people believe it contributes to making the subordinate courts corrupt and biased towards the ruling establishments.
The directives of the Appellate Division in the Masder Hossain Case in 2007 called for discouraging sending judges on deputation as a safeguard to separation of lower judiciary. Experts believe that the tendency to unnecessarily posting judges to lucrative government posts should be checked to allow enough number of judges and magistrates to run the lower judiciary from facing spill over of cases and keep the courts away from political influence. Chief Justice Surendra Kumar Sinha only recently made the point at the annual dinner questioning the logic of posting judges on deputation to various government posts; when people are not getting speedy justice for want of judges.
Estimates suggest out of 1,333 lower court judges including magistrates 84 are on deputation to government posts when the number of pending cases is only rising in the volatile political climate. The shortage of judges is highly damaging to keep the courts even running at the minimum level to make sure the dispensation of justice to people crowding everyday in greater number at the court premises. Moreover the mingling of judges with powerful political lobbies by serving in the Election Commission, Law Commission, Anti-Corruption Commission and National Human Rights Commission etc is widely blamed for degradation of judicial values in many cases contributing to politicization of dispensation of justice.
The most sensitive point is that when the judges become aspirant to executive posts and lobby with political and bureaucratic high-ups, justice could not be served justly any more on victims from state power. Moreover, the government tendency to appoint judges in administrative posts is contradictory to the government’s constitutional pledge – justice to all. We would like to say that as the trustee of the judiciary, the Supreme Court has to speed up the disposing of cases at the Supreme Court level while making sure speedy disposal of cases at the lower court. As the first step, it should therefore bring back the judges working in the executive branch and make recruitment at lower judiciary on merit basis to serve the people waiting for justice.
