The Supreme Court has set a timeline for the Centre to clear the names of judges encouraged by the High Court Collegiums. The court emphasised the want to facilitate the timely appointment of judges to resolve the crisis in High Courts. The Bench headed by Chief Justice of India S A Bobde also mentioned that if the SC Collegium agrees to a recommendation sent back by the Central government, the appointment must be created inside 3 to 4 weeks.
The bench also mentioned that the Intelligence Bureau (IB) must submit its report to the Centre inside 4 to 6 weeks from the date of recommendation of the High Court Collegium. The major court noted that it would be desirable that the Centre forward the suggestions to the Supreme Court inside 8 to 12 weeks from the date of receipt of the IB inputs.
“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 the suitability or in the public interest, within the same period it may be sent back to the Supreme Court Collegium with the specific reasons for reservation recorded,” mentioned the apex court.
Citing the vacancies, the SC observed that High Courts are in a crisis as there are about 40 per cent vacancies, with a lot of of the bigger High Courts working with under 50 per cent of their sanctioned strength.
The problem of vacancies in the High Courts came up throughout the hearing of a plea in search of transfer of a case from the Orissa High Court due to an ongoing strike by the lawyers there.
Attorney General KK Venugopal submitted that against the sanctioned strength of 1,080 High Court Judges, though 664 have currently been appointed, 416 vacancies are however to be filled as the government had only received 196 suggestions against these vacancies so far.
The major court mentioned that according to the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) finalised by the Supreme Court Collegium on March 10, 2017 for appointment of judges, the states must not take more than six weeks to send their views and the Centre can presume no objection of the state government if their views are not received inside six weeks.
Citing the MoP, the court noted that the CJI ought to send suggestions to the Law Minister inside 4 weeks and the Law Minister ought to place up the proposal to the Prime Minister inside 3 weeks for the guidance of the President.