The Centre has returned half of the 77 names recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium for appointment of judges in High Courts for “re-consideration”.
Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi, for the Centre, submitted before a Bench led by Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur on Friday that 43 names have been returned to the Supreme Court Collegium for a re-look.
The appointments of remaining 34 names of the 77 recommended by the Collegium have been “done,” the AG said.
“So there is not a single file pending with us,” Mr. Rohatgi concluded. In fact, Chief Justice Thakur had told the Centre to send back the names of candidates Collegium sent them in case of any difference of opinion rather than keep the entire process of judicial appointments hanging.
‘No response on MoI’Mr. Rohatgi lobbed the ball of judicial appointments issue back into the Supreme Court's court, highlighting there has been no word from the Supreme Court Collegium on the draft Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for judicial appointments the government sent it on August 3.
“The last communication on the MoP was on August 3... since then there has been no reply from the Collegium,” Mr. Rohatgi submitted.
Collegium to meetChief Justice Thakur responded that the Collegium was meeting on November 15 to discuss the MoP. The court then posted a hearing for November 18.
The government’s submissions came in the background of a tongue-lashing it received from the Chief Justice, who accused the government of trying to choke justice by not appointing judges and locking courtrooms en masse.
Chief Justice Thakur had accused the government of trying to “decimate the judiciary and lock justice out.”
“In Karnataka HC, an entire floor of courts are locked because there are no judges. Once we had a situation where we had judges but no court rooms. But now there are courtrooms but no judges,” Chief Justice Thakur had said.
Chief Justice Thakur had criticised the government for inaction in the past nine months since a Constitution Bench scrapped the NJAC law and asked the government to frame a new Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for Judicial Appointments in a separate judgment on December 18, 2015.
In an August 8 hearing, the Supreme Court had launched its sharpest attack on the NDA government in open court. Chief Justice Thakur had bluntly asked the government whether it was trying to bring the entire judicial institution to a “grinding halt” by sitting on recommendations of the Supreme Court Collegium on appointment and transfer of judges to High Courts.
