Overview

• A five-judge Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice B.R. Gavai continued hearings on whether prior bar practice can be counted for district-judge appointments reserved for advocates.
• Official data placed before the court recorded 4,789 vacancies out of 25,870 sanctioned posts in the subordinate judiciary nationwide.
• Senior advocate Menaka Guruswamy argued that bar and bench experience should be treated as equivalent under the Constitution’s scheme for an integrated judiciary.
• Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan contended that, absent any exclusion in Article 233, years spent as an advocate should be aggregated with in-service experience.
• Justices M.M. Sundresh and S.C. Sharma tested the limits of this reading, citing concerns about in-service officers gaining an unfair edge over advocates, and the bench indicated it may reserve judgment after hearing 30 pleas.