Judges' Appointment | After Supreme Court Rebuke, Centre Acts On Certain Pending Collegium Recommendations

The Supreme Court on Monday revealed that almost all of the 70 recommendations made by various high court collegiums had been forwarded by the Centre after the court's last rebuke. A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia was hearing a petition filed by the Advocates Association of Bengaluru seeking contempt action against the Union Ministry of Law and Justice for not adhering to the timeline set by the Court in a 2021 judgment for clearing collegium proposals. A writ petition filed by the non-profit Centre for Public Interest Litigation raising the issue of delay in judicial appointments was also listed along with the contempt petition.On the last occasion, the court reiterated its apprehensions to Attorney-General R Venkataramani over the government's delay in clearing the names or notifying the recommendations, pointing out that seventy recommendations made by the High Court Collegium since November 11, 2022, were pending with the Centre. Highlighting that seven names reiterated by the Supreme Court collegium, nine names proposed for the first time, one chief justice promotion, and 26 transfer proposals were still pending, Justice Kaul urged the attorney-general to 'seek instructions' and adjourn the hearing. In this context, the court also referred to the Manipur High Court, which currently faces a vacant chief justice position with the government yet to act on the collegium’s recommendation to promote Delhi High Court judge Siddharth Mridul. This recommendation to appoint Justice Mridul as the Chief Justice of the Manipur High Court has been pending since July of this year.During today's hearing, the court revealed that the Central Government had, after last time's rebuke, forwarded almost all of the 70 recommendations sent by the collegiums of the high courts. "Since you're normally on the receiving end, some compliments for what has been done, Mr Attorney-General," Justice Kaul said at the outset. But at the same time, he questioned the need for court monitoring. "Does this require our intervention?" the judge asked. He said -"70 names pending before the ministry starting from November 2022 have now landed before the collegium. We are processing them and will try to finish with it before the October vacation. Will have to speak with the consultee judges."Other than this, the Court indicated that the High Court Chief Justice's recommendation, 14 of the 26 transfer proposals, and five out of the 19 names either proposed for the first time or reiterated by the Supreme Court had been cleared. Despite the court's optimism today, Senior Advocate Arvind Datar and Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the petitioners, continued raising concerns over the government's delay in notifying appointments. They also suggested that names reiterated by the Supreme Court collegium be considered deemed appointments. This suggestion, however, did not find favour with the bench, with Justice Kaul pointing out practical concerns, "How does a deemed appointment work? There are practical complications. Also, the attorney-general won't be able to persuade the government to that effect."But the judge categorically said that the collegium should not be in limbo, directing the government to either notify the appointments in terms of the recommendation made or return the names with specific concerns promptly. Expressing the hope that on the next date of the hearing, the attorney-general will be able to provide the court with more good news, the hearing was adjourned until October 20. "Hopefully you'll have some good news for us before Navratri," Justice Kaul said, before pronouncing the following order -"The positive development is that a large number of recommendations from High courts pending with the ministry have finally been forwarded to the collegium. It would not be correct to say that they are pending with the Collegium, as they have been received just on the anvil of the last hearing, or in the last two days. The Collegium requires consultee judges' opinions to be taken and processing to be done, which is underway and will be done at the earliest. The next issue is the transfer of 26 judges of High Courts. Files in 14 cases have been cleared and notification will be issued shortly. In respect to the remaining 12 cases, it is stated to be under process. As far as the appointment of the Chief Justice of a High Court, which has been pending for a considerable time, and that too, for a sensitive state, it is submitted that the file has been cleared, and the notification will be issued shortly. Out of the names that were either recommended for the first time, or reiterated, five of the names have been stated to be cleared. We have already put to the learned attorney general that processes in view of the judgments dealing with the mode of appointment and the time period should be followed by themselves and should not require any monitoring by this court. The Attorney General submits that that is...

Judges' Appointment | After Supreme Court Rebuke, Centre Acts On Certain Pending Collegium Recommendations

Awstika Das

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