Soon after Vice-President of India Venkaiah Naidu rejected the Congress-led Opposition’s notice for the impeachment of Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, judges of the Supreme Court held a closed door meeting with the CJI and confronted him on the issue of the Government delaying appointment of judges despite SC Collegium clearing the names.
Courtrooms — that usually begin work at 10.30 am —started late by 15 minutes because of the unscheduled meeting.
Sources revealed that the CJI was confronted by his colleagues on the slow pace of appointment of High Court judges, with the Centre sitting on the recommendation made by Collegium for months together. The judges viewed this as a serious affront to judiciary as several High Courts were working way below their sanctioned strength creating excessive burden on the present workforce and resulting in a huge backlog.
Though the CJI has in the past shot reminders to the Centre to take up the Collegium recommendations expeditiously, it has not yielded result. Sources added that one of the judges pressed for urgent measures in the wake of strike by lawyers in the Calcutta High Court over the issue of delay in appointment.
A suggestion was made to take up the matter on the judicial side to which some of the judges were not keen. Even a proposal came up to hold a Full Court meeting to ensure that the Court must be seen speaking in one voice on the issue.
Finally, the judges decided to work out an in-house mechanism by suggesting steps that could be done and to take them up informally at a similar meeting of all judges.
After the meeting, a much-relieved CJI walked into his courtroom flanked by two judges around 10.45 am faced with a smile the lawyers who queued up for their cases.