HCs sat on judicial vacancies for years together: Centre to SC
“The process of judicial appointments is like a race. If you start on time, you end on time. The High Courts have, by and large, delayed starting the race. The delay on the High Courts’ part is not just a case of months, but these are five-year and six-year vacancies,” Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi submitted before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur.
With this, the Centre countered Chief Justice Thakur’s threat that the Supreme Court would be “forced” to take judicial notice of the government’s lack of interest in seeing a robust judiciary.
Sharpest attack
In an August 8 hearing, the Supreme Court had launched its sharpest attack on the NDA government in open court. Chief Justice Thakur bluntly asked the government whether it was trying to bring the entire judicial institution to a “grinding halt” by sitting on recommendations of the Supreme Court Collegium on appointment and transfer of judges to High Courts.
The apex court ordered the Centre to furnish a complete report on the status of 74 names the Collegium had recommended for High Court judgeships.
In Wednesday’s hearing, Mr. Rohatgi hinted that the Chief Justice of India should look within the institution and not the government to discover the root cause of delayed judicial appointments.
“The years’ long delay from High Courts is when we all know that the process of fresh judicial appointment has to start six months prior to a sitting judge’s retirement,” Mr. Rohatgi submitted.
Vacancies mount
The number of vacancies in the High Courts have mounted to 485 — over 45 per cent of the total sanctioned strength of 1,079.
The process of judicial appointments to the High Court is kick-started by High Court Collegiums, which shortlists the names for judgeship and forwards them to the Centre.
“There is no logjam from our side,” Mr. Rohatgi clarified.
To prove this statement, the Attorney-General handed over a sealed cover containing a detailed compilation of “facts and figures” of the status of 74 names recommended by the Collegium.
The Centre said it had cleared one name for appointment as Madras High Court judge. It said appointments to Kerala and Chhattisgarh High Courts had been cleared.
“It is done. Transfers of two High Court judges have also been done,” Mr. Rohatgi submitted.
The Supreme Court agreed that the judicial appointments process was “arduous” work.
“But after all that arduous process, when the names finally come to us [SC Collegium] and when we send them to you, it should not get stuck,” Chief Justice Thakur told Mr. Rohatgi
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