New Delhi: The Supreme Court has expressed anguish over the “recalcitrant attitude” displayed by the Union government in not appointing judges for high courts for years even in situations where recommendations have been cleared by the collegium.
A bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy said the government must realise that early adjudication of commercial disputes is the necessity for which there has to be adequate number of judges. It said high courts are manned by number of judges where it will become almost impossible to have early adjudication of even important matters.
This is not the first time when the apex court has expressed exasperation at the delay on the part of the Union government in filling up the mounting vacancies of judges in high courts across the country.
Expressing concern over a “crisis situation” in high courts, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court on April 20 laid down a timeline of 18 weeks for the Union government to complete the appointment process for high court judges.
In its order, the top court bench indicated a timeline for each stage of the appointment process.
1. The Intelligence Bureau (IB) should submit its report/inputs within four to six weeks from the date of recommendation of the high court collegium to the Central government.
2. It would be desirable that the Central government forward the file(s)/recommendations to the Supreme Court within eight to 12 weeks from the date of receipt of views from the state government and the report/input from the IB.
3. It would be for the government to thereafter proceed to make the appointment immediately on the aforesaid consideration and undoubtedly if government has any reservations on suitability or in public interest, within the same period of time it may be sent back to the Supreme Court collegium with the specific reasons for reservation recorded.
If the Supreme Court collegium after consideration of the aforesaid inputs still reiterates the recommendation(s) unanimously, such appointment should be processed and appointment should be made within three to four weeks.
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A severe shortage
Union law minister Kiren Rijiju, responding to a query in the Lok Sabha, had said that a total of 453 posts of high court judges were lying vacant in the 25 high courts across the country against the total strength of 1,098.
The top court in its order noted that two decades ago, when Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul was appointed as a judge of the Delhi high court, he was appointed as the 32nd judge out of a strength of 33 judges. But in a week’s time, the Delhi high court will have less than 50% judges with only 29 judges out of a strength of 60 judges.
The top court made these observations while hearing a special leave petition filed against an interlocutory order passed by the Delhi high court in a matter related to anti-dumping proceedings.
The bench noted that the high court is not in a position to give an early hearing for the case, as it is working at half its strength.
It said the “real rub” is in the fact that high court does not find it feasible to accommodate such matters at an early date and this is the direct result of there being inadequacies of number of judges, including in the capital of the country, where the Delhi high court is located.
The bench noted if there is some element of loss being caused by inability of judicial institution to take up matters, this is a direct consequence of there being inadequate number of judges.
“In view of all the aforesaid, the government must realise that early adjudication of commercial disputes is the necessity for which there has to be adequate number of judges which in turn would require them to follow the timelines said down in,” the bench said.
On August 6, a bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana had termed non-filling of vacancies at various tribunals a “very sorry state of affairs” and asked the Centre to apprise it within ten days about the steps taken and said it suspects some lobbies have been working in this regard.
(With inputs from PTI)