Fill Up The Vacancies Of Judges, Give Due Consideration To The Members From Muslim Community: Plea Filed Before Punjab & Haryana High Court

The Plea moved by Advocate Ranjan Lakhanpal has arrayed the Union of India, the State of Punjab, the State of Haryana, UT Chandigarh, and the Registrar General, Punjab and Haryana High Court as respondent parties

The plea avers that facing a shortfall of 38 judges, the Punjab and Haryana High Court had overall pendency of over 6.4 Lakh cases and that the Court had 47 judges against the sanctioned strength of 85.

The plea also states,

"There is a backlog of over six lakh cases and the number of cases is only increasing day by day. In such a situation, it is imperative that vacancies of Hon'ble Judge be filled up immediately and some vacancies are required to be created and filled up immediately."

Importantly, the plea highlights that there is no representation from the Muslim Minority Community in the High Court.

The plea states,

"Even though Punjab and Haryana High Court is in existence since the year 1956, not a single member has been elevated as a Judge in this Hon'ble Court from the Muslim Minority Community. It is necessary that a member of the Muslim Minority Community should be appointed as Judge of this Hon'ble Court so that Muslim Minority Community does not feel discriminated."

The petitioner has also stated that a representation was made to the Prime Minister of India for seeking appointment of Judge of this Hon'ble Court from Muslim Minority Community.

The plea clarifies that it doesn't pray that only member of the Punjab and Haryana High Court should be elevated as Judge of this Hon'ble Court, but member of Muslim Minority Community from any States of our Country can be elevated as Judge of this Hon'ble Court from Muslim Minority Community

The plea has further submitted before the Court that a serious under-representation of religious minorities in the Supreme Court/ High Courts reflect that the collegium has either not been sensitive towards the matter or has simply bypassed it in its cloudy deliberations to select and appoint Judges.

Importantly, the plea avers,

"When the judiciary does not reflect a broadly representative cross section of India Society, the public perception would be that there is an implicit bias against religious minorities. While reservation in the Judiciary may generate controversy, it nonetheless raises the question: What would it take for such a change to be made or other attempts at dealing with the lack of diversity to fully emerge."

Lastly, the plea prays for the following directions to the respondents:

• To fill up the remaining vacancy of Judges in this Hon'ble Court as there is a shortage of 38 Judges in the Hon'ble High Court of Punjab and Haryana with the pendency of over 6 Lacs cases.
• Some vacancy of Judges be filled from Muslim Minority Community so that some representation is given to the Community