In a rare gesture, Chief Justice of India TS Thakur on Monday went public in expressing his resentment over judicial appointments not finding any place in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech.
Speaking on the occasion of India’s 70th Independence Day at a function organised at the Supreme Court lawns, the CJI said, “I heard the popular Prime Minister for one and a half hours... I expected some mention about justice also, about appointment of judges.”
These words come in the midst of a bitter standoff between the Centre and judiciary over judicial appointments which are stuck with the Government despite being cleared by the SC Collegium.
Union law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad was present at the function when Thakur spoke after hoisting the national flag. Displaying his unhappiness, Justice Thakur said, “I want to tell the Prime Minister only one thing, you remove poverty, create employment, bring schemes etc but also think about justice for the countrymen.”
This is not the first time the CJI has openly expressed his resentment over Government’s laxity in filling judicial vacancies. Recently, a Bench headed by Justice Thakur warned the Government over non-execution of the Collegium’s decision to transfer and appoint Chief Justices and judges in High Courts. In April this year, the CJI broke down in front of the Prime Minister at a function pleading the cause of the judiciary which needs 40,000 judges as against the present 21,000 to deal with the mounting pendency of cases.
Reminding the Centre yet again, Justice Thakur said, “During the British rule, cases could be decided in even 10 years. But now both the number of cases and people’s expectations have risen so substantially that it is becoming difficult to achieve the objective now. That is why I have time and again requested the Prime Minister to pay attention towards this aspect,” he said.
On a lighter vein, the Chief Justice recited an Urdu couplet, “Gul fenke auron par, samar bhi, E abr-e-karam, e-behr-e-sakha, kuch to idhar bhi (You gave fruits and flowers to others but O cloud of beneficence, wave of friendship, do bestow something on us too),” stating that he was “bluntly” speaking the truth as he had no hesitation having reached the “peak” of his career.
The facts provide enough reasons to explain CJI’s worry. In a statement issued in the Rajya Sabha last week, the Government reported 478 vacancies across 24 High Courts with nearly 39 lakh cases pending in these courts. While the sanctioned strength of judges in the High Courts has increased from 906 in June 2014 to 1,079 in June this year, as on August 1, the working strength of the 24 High Courts is only 601 judges.