Govt not sitting over judicial appointments, says CJI

 

The stand-off between the central government and the judiciary over judicial appointments appears to be over with the Supreme Court saying that the government was not sitting over files sent to them by the Collegium.

 

“Appointments are happening. As the Chief Justice, I am telling you that whatever is pending is pending before the Supreme Court Collegium. There are almost 70-80 proposals before the Collegium and hardly 27 before the government", Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi told advocate Prashant Bhushan, who represented Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), on Friday.

 

The top court was hearing a PIL filed by CPIL which accused the Centre of “indefinitely sitting" on the names recommended by the Collegium for appointment of judges in the in the Supreme Court and high courts.

 

The CJI’s comments are significant as the central government and the Collegium have been at loggerheads over judicial appointments and several judges, including Justice Kurian Joseph, have complained about inordinate delay in judges’ appointment on the part of the executive. The government had delayed the appointment of Justice KM Joseph by more than six months.

 

On November 2, CJI Gogoi had expressed surprise over the unprecedented speed with which the Centre cleared the formalities in less than 48 hours for appointment of Justice Hemant Gupta, Justice R Subhash Reddy, Justice MR Shah and Justice Ajay Rastogi as Supreme Court judges.

 

“Recommendations were sent to the Government at 11 am on Wednesday. In the evening when I was told medical has been done, even I was in awe,” the CJI had said.

 

As on February 1, there were 679 judges in 25 high courts against a sanctioned strength of 1079 and 400 posts of judges were vacant. The Supreme Court is functioning with 28 judges against a sanctioned strength of 31 judges, including the CJI.

 

The CJI said most of the recommendations for appointment of judges in high courts were pending with the collegiums and not the government, the CJI pointed out.

 

"There are about 27 recommendations pending before the government and there are 70 to 80 pending before the Collegium, as the CJI, I am telling you," the CJI told Bhushan, who said there were several recommendations pending with the government despite the reiteration of names by the Collegium.

 

The Bench— which also included Justice Sanjiv Khanna—chose not to pass any order and simply posted the matter for hearing after six weeks.

 

The petitioner had said "stone-walling" of judicial appointments by the executive for "oblique and vested interests" amounted to interference in the due process of law and the independence and integrity of the judiciary.

Describing it as an extremely sorry state of affairs, the petitioner had contended that it eroded independence of judiciary and violated the basic structure of the Constitution.