Justice Vipin Sanghi bids farewell to Delhi HC

Delhi High Court Acting Chief Justice Vipin Sanghi Monday expressed concern over the process of appointment of judges saying over the years the procedure has become more time-consuming and uncertain that needs to be urgently addressed to attract the best talent to the bench.

Justice Sanghi, who was speaking in a full-court reference which was held to bid farewell to him on his appointment as the Chief Justice of the Uttarakhand High Court, will be remembered for his work done during the second wave of COVID-19 pandemic when he conducted 45 days of marathon hearings and once observed that he could not see "people dying" which prompted action from the governments.

He had also warned that the bench will "hang" any person who tries to obstruct oxygen supplies to hospitals.

The judge, who has spent over three decades in the legal profession including 16 years on the bench, said unfortunately appointments do not pace with retirements, transfers, elevation, and demise of judges and the numbers slowly go down which results in a fall of disposal rate and rise in pendency of cases.

"The process of appointment over the years has become more time-consuming and more uncertain. This has dissuaded many meritorious senior advocates and other advocates from giving their consent to be considered by the collegium of the high court for recommending their names for judgeship. In my humble view, this aspect needs to be urgently addressed if we wish to attract the best talent to the bench," he said.

He added that a few years ago, the Delhi High Court had a reasonable strength on the bench and the entire court worked full steam which saw a reduction in the number of pending cases.

"Unfortunately appointments do not pace with retirements, transfers, elevation, and even demise of Justice Valmiki Mehta. We saw our numbers slowly going down. Resultantly we also saw disposals fall and the pendency again started building up," Justice Sanghi said.

"The ongoing pandemic also put a spanner in the works though, I can proudly say, thanks to our already digitised records and functional e-courts and dedicated computer committee headed by Justice Rajiv Shakdher and computer branch, we quickly started virtual courts,'' he said.

Justice Sanghi added ''We were reduced to 29 judges in the recent past when we saw a quick recovery and now we are 47 in number. Looking at the caliber of new appointees….., I am confident that disposals will soon overtake the new filings and we will again start seeing pendency reduce.'' He said if the judiciary had to achieve its intended goal of dispensing justice without fear or favour and in accordance with the Constitution and laws, the judges have to function with complete honesty, integrity, and independence.

"I realised that we all hold this position as a public trust. It is that public trust that we have to discharge and that can be done only with complete honesty. There is no room for any biases for or against anything, either in court or outside," he said, adding, "We cannot have, much less pursue, an agenda. Whatever functions we discharge, judicial or administrative, have to be discharged objectively on merit and merit alone." Justice Sanghi said that disposals of the court as a whole greatly depend on the working strength of the court and low judge strength not only puts strain on the judicial system but results in putting the serving judges under tremendous work pressure.

"The entire burden which ideally should be shared by the full strength of judges falls on the reduced number in office that slows down the disposal as the boards of all the judges get choked. It also has an impact on the quality of judgements delivered by judges as there is the dearth of time to research," he said, adding, "It actually robs the judges of the joy of judging." Justice Sanghi concluded his speech by saying, "I sign off with the words 'ab tumhare hawale Delhi High Court saathiyo'." During his tenure as a judge of the Delhi High Court, Justice Sanghi delivered various judgements, including the directives passed to assuage the miseries faced by citizens in the national capital during the COVID-19 pandemic.

He conducted marathon hearings for 45 days and closely monitored the augmentation of resources, including oxygen, for the citizens of Delhi, and dealt with instances of alleged hoarding of essential medicines by certain politicians.

In these sittings, the bench headed by Justice Sanghi once said it could not see "people dying" as it prompted action from the governments while warning that it will "hang" any person who tries to obstruct oxygen supplies to hospitals.

He dealt with the issues of non-payment of salaries and pension to municipal employees, issues concerning hawking and vending as well as prevention and control of vector-borne diseases in the city.

He also pulled up the MCDs for their failure to control the spread of dengue, saying there was a complete paralysis in civic administration as no one was bothered about the deaths.

He recently set aside the AAP government's doorstep ration delivery scheme, Mukhymantri Ghar Ghar Ration Yojna as was not approved by the Lieutenant Governor who expressed his difference.

While dismissing an appeal by a husband against the divorce granted by the family court, a bench headed by Justice Sanghi remarked that husband and wife are a family's two pillars that can withstand all abuses together but when one pillar gives up, it cannot be expected that the other pillar will single-handedly hold the house together.

Born on October 27, 1961, Justice Sanghi was appointed as the Acting Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court with effect from March 13, 2022.