New Delhi, Oct 12: The appointment of ad-hoc judges to tackle the backlog of lakhs of criminal cases has not found favour with the high courts as none of them have so far recommended any names, nearly nine months after the Supreme Court cleared the idea in January.

According to people aware of the procedure to appoint Supreme Court and high court judges, till October 11, none of the 25 high courts recommended any names for appointment as ad-hoc judges.

The Union law ministry has not received any recommendation from any of the high court collegiums in this regard.

Concerned with the pendency of more than 18 lakh criminal cases, the Supreme Court on January 30 allowed the high courts to appoint ad-hoc judges, not exceeding 10 per cent of the court’s total sanctioned strength.

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