Kashish Jain
The Union Government has offered to decide on the Supreme Court Collegium recommendations for the appointment of judges in the High Court that has been pending with the High Courts for over 6 months.
Attorney General KK Venugopal made a statement before a Special Bench which said that the High Court has continued to have 220 vacancies because the collegium had not forwarded any names and he demanded that the collegium be put on a clock for putting forward their recommendations.
The Special Bench comprised CJI Bobde, Justices S.K. Kaul and Surya Kant.
The CJI shot back that it would be helpful if the Government shared its timeline at every stage of the appointment process. Justice Kaul stated,
“There are two timelines, one for the government and another for the HCs. The Chief Justice says he will deal with the High Court timelines. As regards the timeline for the government, you tell us on the next date… We are only asking you to tell us the timeline within which the government and the judiciary will cooperate.”
Mr. Venugopal stated that the Memorandum of Procedure guides the Government and the Judiciary through the process of appointment.
While the procedure does not insist on a deadline, it only loosely says that the process should be completed within a reasonable time.
Forty-four of the pending recommendations were made to fill up vacancies in Calcutta, Madhya Pradesh, Gauhati, Rajasthan, and Punjab High Courts.
Every one of these recommendations had been pending with the government for over seven months to a year. Recommendations of names made by the Collegium to the Delhi High Court had been pending for seven months.
The Bench has asked,“This is a matter of grave concern … When do you propose to take a decision?”
