Prepone date of hearing

an application to this Court on 4th May 1981, for an order directing that the writ petition be heard and disposed of before 6th June, 1981 and that in any event, the respondents should maintain status quo by extending the period of appointment of additional Judges in the various High Courts till the disposal of the writ petition. Immediately on filing this application the petitioner requested the Court to fix an early date of hearing of the writ petition so that it could be disposed of before 6th June, 1981, but since the Court was closing for the summer vacation from 9th May, 1981, it was not possible to fix the hearing of the writ petition until the reopening of the court after the summer vacation. The petitioner thereupon prayed for an interim order that on the expiration of their term on 6th June, 1981, the additional Judges should be continued and their term extended until the final disposal of the writ petition. But, obviously this was not a prayer which could be granted by the Court because it is for the President and not for the Court to appoint Additional Judges and once the term of an Additional Judge has come to an end by efflux of time, it is not competent for the court to reappoint him for a further term. Since, however, an allegation was made in the application that the appointments of additional Judges for a further term were being made at the last minute and three additional Judges of the Bombay High Court at Nagpur were not informed about the extension of their term until the evening of the last day on which their original term was due to expire, this Court made an order dated 8th May 1981 directing that, since the hearing of the writ petition would not be taking place until the reopening of the Court after the summer vacation, the Union of India should "decide not less than ten days before 6th June, 1981 whether any of the three additional Judges should be reappointed for a further term as additional Judges or they should be appointed as permanent Judges or otherwise". So far as the circular letter was concerned, though no prayer for interim relief was made in the written application, this Court, on an oral application made on behalf of the petitioner, directed that any additional Judge who does not wish to respond to the circular letter may do so until the disposal of the writ petition and he shall not be refused extension nor shall he be refused permanent appointment, as the case may be, on the ground that he has not sent any reply to the circular letter or has not indicated his preference as asked for in the circular letter. Now, according to this order, the Central Government was bound to take its decision in regard to the continuance or otherwise of O.N. Vohra, S.N. Kumar and S.B. Wad on or before 27th May, 1981 but since no such decision was communicated to the three additional Judges, the petitioner, presuming that such decision must not have been reached by the Central Government, preferred an application to this Court on Ist June, 1981 for directing the Central Government to communicate its decision regarding the continuance or otherwise of the three additional Judges. Before this application came up for hearing, the petitioner came to know that a decision had been taken by the Central Government in regard to O.N. Vohra S.N. Kumar and S.B. Wad and while S.B. Wad was continued as an additional Judge for a period of one year from 7th June, 1981, O.N. Vohra and S.N. Kumar were not continued for a further term. The petitioner thereupon preferred another application to this Court on 4th June, 1981 and in this application the petitioner pointed out that there were still large arrears of work in the Delhi High Court and therefore there was no lawful and bona fide reason for the non-continuance of O.N. Vohra and S.N. Kumar and not granting fresh appointments to them was mala fide and unconstitutional and prayed that in the circumstances, an interim order should be made by the Court directing that O.N. Vohra and S.N. Kumar shall continue to function as Judges of the Delhi High Court. Both these applications came up for hearing before the learned Vacation Judge and by an order dated 6th June, 1981, the learned Vacation Judge declined to grant interim relief that O.N. Vohra and S.N. Kumar shall continue as additional Judges but directed that notice be issued to show cause why status quo in respect of these two Judges should not be maintained and continued till the pendency of the writ petition. It appears that no order was thereafter made on the notice, since the writ petition itself was directed to be heard at an early date and in the meanwhile, O.N. Vohra and S.N. Kumar were impleaded as respondent Nos. 4 and 5, to the writ petition. O.N. Vohra did not appear at the hearing of the writ petition but S.N. Kumar appeared through counsel, filed a counter-affidavit and claimed that the decision of the Central Government not to appoint him for a further term was vitiated since it was reached without full and effective consultation with the Chief Justice of India and in any event it was based on irrelevant considerations and that on a proper construction of Article 224 read with Article 217, he must be deemed to have been appointed a permanent Judge and in any event, he was entitled to be appointed as an additional Judge for a further term. The Union of India also filed an affidavit in answer to the writ petition and a further affidavit in reply to the counter-affidavit of S.N. Kumar. The writ petition was thereafter placed for hearing before this Bench of seven Judges along with the writ petition filed by Iqbal Chagla and others.