In an unprecedented attack on the Government, the Supreme Court has accused the Centre of trying to paralyse the judiciary by dragging its feet on implementing the Collegium’s decision to appoint and transfer Chief Justices and judges of High Courts. This came on a day the Government told the Rajya Sabha that 478 vacancies were yet to be filled in 24 HCs of the country and nearly 39 lakh cases were pending there.
Chief Justice of India TS Thakur, who recently broke down while making an emotional appeal to the Government to fill the vacant post of judges, sent out a stern message to the Centre over non-execution of the Collegium’s decision, saying the SC will not tolerate the “logjam” and would intervene to make it accountable.
In April, the Collegium cleared the names of over 70 judges, but the Government has so far neither approved them nor sent any of them back to the Collegium for reconsideration.
lamenting that the Centre was trying to bring the judiciary to a halt, the SC asked the Attorney-General to seek instructions from the Centre. “We won’t tolerate logjam in judges’ appointment which is stifling judicial work.
We will fasten accountability,” said TS Thakur.
A three-member Bench headed by Thakur, who also heads the SC’s Collegium, referred to the differences between the judiciary and the Centre over the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP), dealing with the appointment of judges, and said the process of appointment cannot be stalled owing to delay in the finalisation of the MoP.
The Bench said that it may intervene on the “judicial” side as the eight-month-old decision of the Collegium on transfer and appointment of HC judges has not been given effect.
“Why is there mistrustIJ Where’s the proposal languishingIJ Even though 75 names have been recommended by the Collegium there seems to be no response. Even the appointment of Chief Justices is pending. Transfers of judges are pending. We don’t want all this. This logjam is not good,” said the Bench, also comprising Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud.
The Bench said that if the Government has any reservation against any name then it can always come back to the Collegium. “If there is a problem with regard to any name, please send the file back
to us (for reconsideration),” said the Bench.
The CJI, referring to his recent visit to Hyderabad, said that the Andhra Pradesh HC was working at 40 per cent of its original strength and the pendency had risen immensely. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said, “I will take it up at the highest level and will come back to the court”.
He pleaded that no notice be issued for the time-being on the PIl filed by 1971 war veteran lieutenant Colonel Anil Kabotra on the issue.
Meanwhile, the Government informed the Rajya Sabha that 478 vacancies were yet to be filled in 24 HC’s of the country and nearly 39 lakh cases were pending there.
The Government also said the sanctioned strength of judges in the HC’s has increased from 906 in June 2014 to 1,079 in June this year. Though the sanctioned strength has increased, according to the latest law Ministry data, as on August 1, the working strength of the 24 HCs is 601 judges, which means 478 vacancies are yet to be filled.
The SC, with a sanctioned strength of 31 judges, including the Chief Justice, has three vacancies. The figures relating to the total number of pending cases in the HCs and the increased sanctioned strength of judges was given by Minister of State for law PP Chaudhary in a written response to a question.
Giving out the reasons behind pendency of cases, he said increased impact of State and Central legislations, accumulation of first appeals, vacancies of judges, frequent adjournments were the main causes for pending cases.