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Two writ petitions asking the Supreme Court to declare that advocates should not be appointed as judges in the same High Court where either they have practiced or their blood relations are practicing has been recently filed by Anil Kabotra, a retired army official and Bhartiya Matdata Sanghatan (BMS), a registered trust respectively. Similar recommendations had been made for judicial reforms in the Law Commission of India’s 221st Report and the National Commission for Review of Working of Constitution.
The petitioners argued that the appointment of lawyers as judges in their parent High Court breeds favoritism and partiality. Moreover, the efficiency of the Indian judiciary is adversely affected due to a lack of a transparent system which enables assess to the merits of the persons selected for the posts of a judge. They further referred to the Central government resolution adopted on 25.10.2009 vowing to reduce case pendency from 15 to 3 years. This resolution had been passed in the presence of the CJI, Justices of the Supreme Courts and the High Courts and members of the bar. The petition filed by the BMS specifically prays for the necessity to end the “uncle judge syndrome” which refers to appointments of blood relations of a judge in a particular court.
Apart from these, the petitions emphasized on a four-fold increase in the number of judges and entrusting trained adjudicators with the works of court management instead of the sitting judges as this will lead to effective utilization of the judicial time. The petitions also prayed for the enactment of a comprehensive law on Speedy Trial and stringent guidelines for allowing adjournments. Provisions regarding the widening of compoundable offenses under IPC and other laws and fixation of appeal limit and adjudication time was also made in the petitions. In order to draw a comparison and emphasize on the needs of speedy trials, the petitioners also drew reference to the time disposal mechanisms for commercial disputes in other nations such as Singapore, Norway, and Japan
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