Soni Satti
The central government after being admonished by the Supreme Court for delaying the appointment of judges, has stated that the high courts are yet to submit the names for 220 vacancies, the oldest of which dates back more than six years.
Attorney General (A-G) KK Venugopal filed a notice in the Supreme Court, attempting to deflect criticism from the government by pointing out that the high courts have not made recommendations for about 53% of their overall vacancies.
The note submitted before the Bench headed by Chief Justice Bobde highlighted that although 196 names for the 420 vacancies were pending, no recommendations have been made for 220 vacancies, and some of the HCs had not made recommendations for over six years.
The notice further pointed out that, ‘‘The Punjab and Haryana High Court had yet to make suggestions for 32 vacancies, while the Allahabad High Court had yet to send names for 28 vacancies. Delhi (23) and Gujarat (23) were two other HCs who were behind in submitting proposals (21),’’
The Centre, citing the memorandum of procedure (MoP) that governs the selection of judges in the SC and HCs, stated that high courts were supposed to make recommendations six months before a vacancy occurred, but the high courts of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa, Gujarat, Meghalaya, and Sikkim had not submitted names from vacancies resulting from the Bar Council of India’s report (lawyers). The first of these was a position in the Jharkhand High Court that became vacant on July 1, 2014.
The government also stated that it had not received any proposals for appointment to the Supreme Court, which currently has five vacancies, the oldest of which will be filled in November 2019 following the retirement of then-CJI Ranjan Gogoi.
