Orissa HC Bar Association Protests Elevation Of ‘Outsider’ Lawyers As Judges

The Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association has taken strong objection to a resolution passed by the Orissa High Court Bar Association protesting against elevation of “outsider” lawyers as judges of the Orissa High Court.

According to a report carried by legal website livelaw.in, the Orissa HC Bar Association last Thursday passed a resolution against “attempts of the Orissa High Court collegium to recommend the names of  some ‘outsiders’ as judges who have no regular practice in the High Court.”

The next day the Supreme Court AoR Association passed a resolution terming the development as “disturbing”.

The resolution requested the Supreme Court to send a serious message to all high courts not to accede to unreasonable resolutions like the one passed by the Orissa Cuttack Bar Association, against recommending an “outsider’ lawyer as HC judge.

“Lawyers from different states are practicing in this Hon’ble Court. Some of them have put in more than 20 years as Advocates on Record… We have seen such elevation from amongst the members of the Supreme Court Bar to different High Courts,” the resolution read.

The resolution of the Orissa HC Bar Association came against the backdrop of the Orissa High Court Collegium last October recommending the names of 12 candidates, including four judicial officers and eight advocates, to the Supreme Court Collegium for elevation as High Court judges.

The apex court had declined the names of 11 candidates. The only candidate who was selected was judicial officer Dr Akshaya Kumar Mishra. He was sworn in as Orissa High Court judge in November along with additional judge Shatrughana Pujahari.