Judicial appointments: SC seeks explanation from Centre over delay
As stalemate continues over appointment of high court judges, including seven chief justices recommended for elevation, the Supreme Court on Friday asked the Centre to explain the delay and provide information on the names recommended and reiterated for appointment by the CJI-led Collegium.
"You tell us the reasons why those appointments have not been made. Which are the matters reiterated and why are those pending?" a Bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud told Attorney General R Venkataramani.
"The Supreme Court Collegium is not a search committee whose recommendations can be stalled," asserted the Bench, which also included Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra.
While hearing a PIL filed by advocate Harsh Vibhore Singhal seeking a direction that a time limit be fixed for the Centre to notify appointment of judges recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium, it asked the Attorney General to prepare a chart with the names of candidates recommended with dates or recommendation and reiteration and the difficulty in notifying the appointments.
"If you can please make a list of the names reiterated and why it is pending and at what level it is pending... Show us why it is pending," the CJI said.
The Bench, however, said that some of the appointments of high court chief justices were likely to be made. "Let's push back this case; some appointments are to be cleared… We expect it to come very early," it said, deferring the hearing to next week at the request of the Attorney General.
"There are several reasons why such names are pending and we have no hesitation in disclosing the facts to the bench," the Attorney General said.
As senior counsel Kapil Sibal, representing the Jharkhand Government, said it was unfortunate that the recommendation for appointment of the state high court’s Chief Justice was hanging fire, Venkataramani raised preliminary objections to petitions questioning the delay in appointment of judges.
The Jharkhand Government has moved the top court against the Centre for not clearing the recommendation made by the Collegium to appoint Justice MS Ramachandra Rao as the Chief Justice of the Jharkhand High Court. Justice Rao is currently the Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court.
Advocate Prashant Bhushan referred to senior advocate Saurabh Kirpal, who has not been appointed as a high court judge despite his name having been reiterated by the Collegium.
Bhushan said those recommended for appointment, if reiterated by the Collegium, must be deemed to have been appointed after a reasonable time, as the government kept on sitting on some names for months together.
The Centre and the Supreme Court have been at loggerheads over judicial appointments with the latter accusing the former of sitting over the Collegium’s recommendations. However, during the current CJI’s tenure things have moved rather smoothly, barring a few exceptions.
Having said that some "sensitive material" was delaying forward movement on the Collegium’s July 11 recommendation for appointment of chief justices of seven high courts, the Centre had on Thursday told the Supreme Court that it will provide details about it next week.
Days after the Centre told the top court that certain "sensitive information" available with it was delaying forward movement on the Collegium’s July 11 recommendation for appointment of high courts of Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Madras and Meghalaya, the CJI-led Collegium on Tuesday had made changes in its earlier recommendation.
In supersession of its July 11 resolution, the Collegium on September 17 recommended Justice GS Sandhawalia, Justice Tashi Rabstan and Justice Suresh Kumar Kait to be appointed as chief justices of high courts of Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and Madhya Pradesh, respectively.
