Clarifying that appointment of ad hoc judges would not be against vacancies in the sanctioned strength of judges in an HC, a bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices S K Kaul and Surya Kant took the historic step to chart out structured implementation of Article 224A. NEW DELHI: Activating Article 224A of the Constitution that had been dormant for 58 years, the Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed high court chief justices to start appointing retired HC judges as ad hoc judges for two to five years if the HC faced pendency of a large number of cases. Clarifying that appointment of ad hoc judges would not be against vacancies in the sanctioned strength of judges in an HC, a bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices S K Kaul and Surya Kant took the historic step to chart out structured implementation of Article 224A, which was there in the original Constitution adopted in 1949 but was deleted in 1956 only to be reintroduced in 1963.