After a prolonged standoff between the Government and judiciary over appointments of judges of the High Court, the Centre on Friday cleared 34 names and rejected 43 recommendations by the SC Collegium. The move came after the Supreme Court took a tough stand two weeks ago against the Centre’s inaction on judicial appointments for months together without deciding on the names one way or the other.
It was payback time for the Centre as Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi informed a Bench of Chief Justice TS Thakur and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh that every single file from the lot of 77 recommendations forwarded by the SC Collegium has been considered. While 34 appointments were cleared, 43 names have been returned to the Collegium for reconsideration, he added.
The Bench was keen to adjourn the case to next week, but the A-G raised the issue of the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for appointing judges, pointing out that the Collegium is yet to take a call on the amended MoP. He said Union law Ministry wrote to the Chief Justice of India on August 7 about the MOP. But, the Ministry has not received any response so far, he added.
“Please consider that there is some crystallisation on the issue of MoP before a fresh decision is taken by the Collegium,” said Rohatgi. CJI Thakur told the A-G that the Collegium is due to meet on November 15 and something will be done on this front. The A-G requested to keep the matter on Friday to which the court agreed.
The hearing in the case witnessed a marked difference from the earlier proceeding held on October 28. Sparks flew in the court on the previous occasion when the court blasted the Centre for being insensitive towards filling up judicial vacancies with several High Courts functioning at half of the actual strength due to lack of judges.
The Court even threatened to summon the PMO official responsible for sitting for months on the files recommended by Collegium.
The Bench’s fury on that day had prompted the A-G to seek a further indulgence of a final opportunity to persuade the Centre end the deadlock. The Centre on Friday was happy to roll the ball in the judiciary’s court as A-G told the bench, “As far as we are concerned we have a clean slate as not a single file remains pending with us.”