6 additional judges of Chhattisgarh HC gets 3 months extension

Six additional judges of the Chhattisgarh High Court were today granted a three-month extension days after the Chief Justice of India indicated that the collegium may not decide on appointing new judges till the Constitutional Bench decides on the issue of improving the appointment system.
Separate Law Ministry statements said Manindra Mohan Shrivastava, Goutam Bhaduri, Sanjay Kumar Agrawal, Puthichira Sam Koshy, Inder Singh Uboweja and Chandra Bhushan Bajpai have been reappointed Additional Judges of Chhattisgarh High Court, for a period of three months.
While Srivastava's fresh term will begin from December 10, the terms of Bhaduri, Agarwal and Koshy will begin from December 16.

The terms of Uboweja and Bajpai will begin with effect from January 27, 2016.
Usually additional judges are appointed for a period of two years and later elevated as permanent judges.
Seeking to overcome the shortage of judges in high courts, government had sought approval from the Supreme Court to extend the terms of judges from three to six months when the validity of the National Judicial Appointments Act was being heard in the apex court. The law was struck down on October 16.

With CJI T S Thakur indicating the apex court collegium will not decide on appointing new judges, several additional judges from various high courts could be granted extensions of tenure, a senior Law Ministry official said.

At a recent interaction with the media, the CJI was seemingly sceptical about the apex court's Constitution Bench's nod that the collegium can go ahead with appointment of judges to the higher judiciary till it delivered its order on the issue of improving the existing mechanism.
"They (Bench) said that the collegium can proceed. They did not say that collegium should proceed. Personally, I would like to wait for the judgement," he had said when asked about the high-voltage proceedings on the issue of collegium system and pendency of vacancies.
He also said he would like to know the views of the presiding judges of the bench as to how "I am expected to work on the issue.