On Thursday, the Supreme Court asked the Centre to inform a reasonable time period for responding to the recommendations made by its collegium for appointment of judges as the government said that it will adhere to the timeline fixed in the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP).
The government blamed the delay in clearing of names on High Courts for not sending the instructions on time and said that many of them have not sent the names for the last five years against the existing vacancy.
The top court pointed out that there are 10 names recommended by its collegium are pending with the government for about a year and a half and at what time frame it expects those names to be cleared.
Attorney General KK Venugopal said that the government will make a decision on those 10 names within three months.
A special bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Surya Kant told Venugopal, “You leave the issue of High Courts to us. We as the Supreme Court of India will take care of High Courts and ask them to make recommendations six months ahead of the vacancy. But we are on the question of delay. Why can”t you tell us the fixed reasonable time frame within which you can respond to the names sent by collegium? Tell us a fixed reasonable time frame”.
Venugopal said that the government will strictly stick to the time frame fixed in the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) as it gives the timelines for different branches-High Court collegium, Supreme Court collegium and the government.
“There is no time frame given for the Prime Minister in the MoP and once the file is cleared from the office of Prime Minister, it is sent to the President for approval,” the Attorney General said.
Meanwhile, the bench asked, is the timeline given in the MoP, Venugopal said, “Yes. In the 1998 MoP the timeline is fixed for different branches. The MoP made post NJAC (National Judicial Appointment Commission) judgement is still pending with the Supreme Court”.
From the start, Venugopal said that the Supreme Court has the authorised strength of 34 judges and there is a vacancy of five judges but the government has not received any direction. As there are 416 vacancies in High Courts against the authorised strength of 1080 judges but the government has not still received any recommendations from various High Court Collegium for 220 names.
The government has pointed out in a note that as of April 13, High Courts of Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Meghalaya, Orissa and Sikkim have not recommended names for vacancies from the bar which have been existing for five years or more.
It further said that High Courts of Bombay, Calcutta, Delhi, Gauhati, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Patna, Punjab and Haryana, Telangana, Tripura and Uttarakhand did not recommend names for vacancies from Bar which had been existing for one to five years.
Similarly, High Courts of Manipur, Punjab and Haryana have not recommended names for vacancies from services that have been existing for five years or more.
“High Courts of Allahabad, Andhra Pradesh, Calcutta, Delhi, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa and Patna did not recommend names for vacancies from service which has been existing for one to five years,” it said.
The note said that the High Courts of Jharkhand and Chattisgarh have a delay of 83 and 74 months in making recommendations for appointment of judges from Bar respectively.
On March 25, the top court had said that the Centre should respond to its collegium recommendations within a reasonable time frame and favoured the appointment of ad-hoc judges in the high courts to reduce the pendency of cases in the judiciary. It had taken note of delay on part of the central government in acting on the collegium’s recommendations.
It had asked Venugopal to make a statement regarding clearing of names recommended by the top court collegium. It had said that on each stage there is a certain thought process and therefore “there should be a reasonable time frame within which the Union Ministry of Law and Justice should act. After collegium recommends they need to reply in a specific time frame”.
The top court had taken strong note of the delay on the part of the Central government, on January 27, in acting on the collegium’s recommendations clearing names for appointment of judges in the higher judiciary, saying “it is a matter of great concern”.
As of date 189 proposals on the appointment of judges are pending and sought an update on the latest position from the government, the top court said.
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