Spotlight On Recent Appointments To The Supreme Court - Justice Rajesh Bindal

A general criticism of the Indian Courts has been that very little is known to the public about the judges being recommended by respective Collegium before their appointment, on merit and suitability. A designated Secretariat ideally should do the job, unfortunately we don’t have such a mechanism. Livelaw has taken an initiative to share relevant information about the appointees and we are starting with the appointments to the Apex Court. The focus is to shed light on some of their significant high court judgments.We traced the judicial career of Justice Pankaj Mithal in Part 1 and of Justice Dipankar Datta in Part II. In Part III, we offered a glimpse into the judicial philosophy of Justice Sanjay Karol. In Part IV, we offered some of the highlights of Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar’s judicial pronouncements during his tenures as a High Court Judge and as the Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court. In Part V, we surveyed some of the key judgments delivered by Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah, during his career as a Judge of the Patna and Andhra Pradesh High Courts. In Part VI, we offered a peek into the judicial philosophy of Justice Manoj Misra.In Part VII, we bring to light the jurisprudence of Justice Rajesh Bindal, who served four High Courts, before his elevation to the Supreme Court. BackgroundBorn on April 16, 1961 at Ambala City, Haryana, Rajesh Bindal got his LL.B. Degree from Kurukshetra University in 1985 and started his legal journey from High Court of Punjab & Haryana in September 1985. As a lawyer, he represented Income-tax Department, Haryana region and Employees Provident Fund Organization (Punjab & Haryana Regions) before the High Court and Central Administrative Tribunal and Chandigarh Administration before Central Administrative Tribunal. He remained associated, on behalf of the State of Haryana, in settlement of the dispute concerning Satluj Yamuna Water with the State of Punjab before the Eradi Tribunal and the Supreme Court. He was elevated as a Judge of the High Court of Punjab & Haryana on March 22, 2006.He chaired a multi-member Committee pursuant to Resolution No. 7 adopted in the Chief Justices Conference, 2016 and was entrusted with the task to create a uniform platform and formulate Guidelines for the Reception, Retrieval, Authentication and Preservation of Electronic evidence. The Committee submitted its Report including Draft Rules for reception of Electronic Evidence to the Supreme Court in November 2018.He was appointed Chairman of another multi-member Committee constituted by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to study Civil and Legal Aspects of International Child Abduction Bill, 2016, and Inter Country Removal & Retention of Children. The report, accompanied by the recommendations and draft of the Protection of Children (Inter-Country Removal and Retention) Bill, 2018, was submitted to the Ministry in April 2018. Before his transfer to High Court of Jammu and Kashmir, he remained President, Board of Governors of Chandigarh Judicial Academy and Chairman of various Committees including Computer Committee and was instrumental in development of large number of Softwares including development of Software MedLEaPR (Medico-Legal Examination and Post-Mortem Reporting System). The MedLEaPR is a workflow based web based centralised system for preparation of Medico Legal and Post Mortem Reports, which provides requisite access security, based on roles & responsibilities of concerned doctors, health institutes etc. Beside Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, this application is replicated in the states of Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir. West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu have also shown interest in the system. In this web based application all records pertaining to MLR and PMR are not only computerised but synced with the Court File in Punjab, Haryana and Union Territory of Chandigarh.Under his guidance, Haryana developed a Litigation Management System at High Court and District Level to effectively manage the state litigation. The same system has been adopted by Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.On transfer to High Court of Jammu and Kashmir, he took oath of office on 19th November, 2018. He was nominated as Chairman of the Committee constituted for conducting assessment for optimal use of technology by National Legal Services Authority and the State Legal Services Authorities including use of Artificial Intelligence. The committee’s report was submitted to the National Legal Services Authority.He was also Member of the Committee constituted by National Legal Services Authority to go into the existing framework of Lok Adalats and Mediation and to suggest ways for enhancing operational efficiency and plugging gaps, if any, for better application of these ADR mechanisms for weaker sections of the society.He took over as the Acting Chief Justice of the Common High Court for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir...

Spotlight On Recent Appointments To The Supreme Court - Justice Rajesh Bindal

V Venkatesan

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