Days after the Supreme Court Collegium stood firm by its recommendation to make Justice Ramendra Jain a permanent judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, the Government has notified the extension of his term as additional judge of the Court for another six months.
The notification issued by the Department of Justice (DoJ) today states,
“In exercise of the powers conferred by clause (1) of article 224 if the Constitution of India, the President is pleased to appoint Shri Ramendra Jain, to be an Additional Judge of the Punjab & Haryana High Court, for a period of six months with effect from 20th April 2018.”
Justice Jain was initially recommended to be appointed as a permanent judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on March 26 this year.
However, after the recommendation failed to yield any constructive response, the Collegium passed a resolution on April 17, reiterating their stance that Justice Jain’s appointment should be made permanent.
In doing so, the Collegium had also dismissed objections presented by the DoJ that Justice Jain’s file was not considered as he was due to be transferred to the Karnataka High Court.
In response, it was pointed out that the DoJ had failed to take into consideration that in July 2017, the Collegium had recorded special reasons for retaining Jain J. at the Punjab and Haryana High Court
The Collegium therefore observed,
“We do not see any good ground for linking the proposal of transfer of Mr. Justice Ramendra Jain with the proposal for his appointment as Permanent Judge and even for revisiting, at this crucial juncture, the above-referred decision dated 26th March, 2018 for his appointment as Permanent Judge of the Punjab & Haryana High Court.”
On this ground, the Collegium had reiterated its recommendation to make Justice Jain a permanent judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
“The Collegium, on reconsideration, resolves to reiterate its recommendation for appointment of Mr. Justice Ramendra Jain as Permanent Judge of Punjab & Haryana High Court, especially when no specific reason except the issue of his transfer for seeking reconsideration has been recorded in the file.”
The Central government has now extended his tenure as Additional Judge for another six months. The extension of tenure comes just as Justice Jain’s term as additional judge of the Court was due to end today.
Read Notification below: