New Delhi: In a landmark judgement, the Supreme Court said that retired judges can be appointed to the High Courts on ad-hoc basis. This will help in reducing the number of pending cases in the courts. While hearing the matter of Lok Prahari v Union of India, the Apex court of the country gave this opinion. The decision was given by a three judge bench constituting of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sanjiv Khanna and Justices BR Gavai and Justice Surya Kant. In the judgement the Court mentioned, “Each High Court shall appoint ad hoc judges by taking recourse to Article 224A.” The Court also said that further deliberation on the matter can be made if required. However in the same judgement, the Apex Court held that the appointment of ad-hoc judges should be resorted to only if there is a 20 percent vacancy. The Court further held that judges on Ad-hoc basis cannot be viewed as a regular alternative to regular judges. This would go a long extent in disposing off cases quickly. It would help deal with the increasing number of pending cases and speedy disposal of cases in the High Courts.