Government no to 43 for High Court judges' posts

New Delhi: The Centre on Friday informed the Supreme Court that it had returned to the collegium for its reconsideration of 43 of the 77 names recommended for the appointment of judges in various high courts and that the remaining 34 have been appointed as judges.

Giving the information before a bench of Chief Justice T.S. Thakur and Justice Shiva Kirti Singh (who retired on Friday), Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said, “Not a single file is pending” with the government regarding the appointment of judges to the high courts. “It is for the collegium to decide,” he said.

The AG also told a bench that the finalisation of the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) on the appointment of judges is also pending with the Supreme Court collegium since August 3 as it has not sent back its views. Since February, the Supreme Court collegium has cleared 311 names for the appointments, but the Centre approved only around 80 names.

On October 28, the apex court slammed the NDA government for failing to appoint judges in various high courts despite the collegium clearing some of the names more than nine months ago. An angry CJI told the AG, “You can as well close down the courts. Close down justice”.

“The collegium has cleared 75 names of high court judges (for transfer/appointment) but they have not been approved. I don't know why, where these files are stuck,” a three-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice had said, adding that “the vacancy in high courts has risen to 43% and there are four million cases in the high courts. The whole system is collapsing.”

The Bench is hearing a batch of petitions for a direction to the Centre to fill up vacancies in various high courts pending for a long time, resulting in mounting arrears of cases. When one lawyer, Nedumpara Mathews, asked the CJI not to hear this case as he was heading the collegium, the CJI said the court will pass an order in this regard, and posted the matter for further hearing on November 18.