Tanvi Sinha
The Supreme Court on the 27th of January, stated that it was a matter of grave concern that comments were not given within five months on the appointment of judges that are given by collegium recommendation.
The three-judge bench of CJI Bobde, Justices SJ Kaul and Surya Kaul berated the attorney general KK Venugopal, stating that if the centre had any reservation, they needed to state that and send the names back so the bench can look into the objections.
However, the centre’s tendency of not doing so had led to the recommendations being pending for long after- sometimes a year, sometimes five months, the bench gives the names.
The issue came to light to the Top Court when it heard a plea seeking appointment of Additional judges in the High Court.
The court during this, found out that 189 names were pending with the government as of 31st December last year, resulting in the court stating that endeavours need to be made to ensure appointments happen in a time bound fashion.
This system, of the Judiciary playing an active role in the selection of judges, is recent, and did not exist before the judicial interpretation made by the Supreme Court in 1993.
Before 1993, the selection of judges was the job of the parliament, but post that year, the process was interpreted to mean appointments were to be formally made by the President of India on the recommendation of the collegium and then processed through the Ministry of law and justice.
