Prelims Tidbits 20 Sep 17

25 new Judges for 2 HCs

Context:

• President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday cleared the appointment of 25 judges in two High Courts.
• In a move towards reducing the large number of vacancies in the higher judiciary, President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday cleared the appointment of 25 judges in two High Courts.
• Issuing separate notifications, the Law Ministry notified the appointment of 19 additional judges in the Allahabad High Court and six in the Calcutta High Court.
• The Allahabad High Court, the largest in terms of Bench strength, has an approved strength of 160 judges. But until Tuesday’s appointment, it was functioning with 91 judges.
• The Calcutta High Court, India’s oldest, too has a shortage as the court, until now, has been functioning with 31 judges against an approved strength of 72.
• Additional judges usually have a term of two years and are elevated to the rank of a permanent judge based on their performance.

High Court Judge  

Appointed by Collegium System 

• Qualification of Judges :

1. Should citizen of India 
2. Other Condition (Constitution not mentioned minimum tenure) 
3. Should have held judicial office in a territory of India for 10 Years ;
4. or should have advocate of a HC for 10 years 
5. No provision of appointing distinguished jurist as HCJudge 

• Oath by Governor 
• Tenure :age of 62 years 
• Can resign to President 

Centre approves cadre review in Army

Context:

• The Union government has approved the long-pending cadre review in the Army for Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and Other Ranks (OR), which will improve promotion opportunities.
• “This is the third cadre review since Independence. It will benefit over 1.45 lakh JCOs and ORs. At present, more and more jawans retire in the same rank,” Defence Ministry Sources said
•  The first cadre review was done in 1979 and the second in 1984.
• Nearly 60,000 soldiers retire from the Army every year, most of them as jawans at a young age of 30.