The Centre took the Supreme Court collegium head on for not recommending enough names to fill vacancies
Highlights
- Top court upset over delay in appointment of 2 high court chief justices
- Attorney General refused to give a final date on appointment
- He said the orders would be issued "shortly"
Amid an ongoing face-off between the judiciary and the centre over the elevation of Justice KM Joseph, the Supreme Court on Friday made its displeasure clear over the government's delay in processing appointments of chief justices for two high courts.
"Tell us, how many names (recommended by the collegium) are pending with you," the court asked the centre's top law officer KK Venugopal.
When Mr Venugopal said "I will have to find out", the court shot back: "When it comes to the government, you say "we will find out'."
The sparring continued.
It comes against the backdrop of a face-off over the elevation of Uttarakhand Chief Justice Joseph to the Supreme Court recommended in January. Last month, the centre declined to appoint him. The top court's group of senior judges met this week to discuss the appointment. There was no final decision but the judges are expected to meet again next week to convey its final verdict.
There have been suggestions from within the top court that they should issue a judicial binding order to see the appointment through but Chief Justice Dipak Misra hasn't favoured this approach.
On Friday, Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta were hearing a petition by a man who had sought transfer of his case from the Manipur High Court to the Gauhati High Court. Since the Manipur high court is short of judges, the top court widened the ambit of the case and started to look at the shortage of judges.
At Friday's hearing, it became about who was responsible for a large number of vacancies in the high courts.
KK Venugopal came straight to the point.
The Attorney General argued that collegium, or a group of top Supreme Court judges mandated to recommend names to the President, wasn't sending enough names.
"Some high courts have 40 vacancies and recommendation of the collegium is only for three. And the government is being told that we are tardy in filing up the vacancy," he said.
"The collegium will have to see the broad picture and recommend more names," Mr Venugopal said, asserting that the government could not do anything "if there is no collegium recommendation".
The collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India, is a 3-member body to select high court judges and chief justices. For selecting Supreme Court judges, the collegium has five members.
During the back and forth between the centre's top law officer and the bench, Mr Venugopal refused to give a date by when the two chief justices recommended by the Supreme Court collegium would be appointed. He said the orders would be issued "shortly".
"What shortly? Shortly could be three months," the bench retorted.
Mr Venugopal stood his ground.
He also pointed to a recommendation of the collegium to appoint a judge in the Manipur High Court and specifying that he would continue to function in Gauhati High Court.
"That time, only two judges were there in Manipur High Court. It should not have been said that he (Justice Songkhupchung Serto) would continue in Gauhati High Court. It was necessary to bring him back to Manipur High Court," he said, describing the collegium's resolution as "very strange".
To this, the bench observed, "may be the collegium does not want to get him back to Manipur. We do not know".