Ashwani Kumar reprimands Centre for not paying heed to CJI's repeated reminder

Former law minister and Congress leader Ashwani Kumar on Saturday held the Centre responsible for not appointing judges and said that the government should pay heed to the repeated reminder of Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur in this regard to ensure speedy justice to the people.

"The government has not appointed any judge in the last three years and whoever has been appointed has not joined work yet. The government should pay heed to the concern of the Chief Justice of India to provide speedy justice to the people," Kumar told ANI.

He further said it is extremely unfortunate that the Chief Justice of India has to repeatedly remind the government about the appointment of the judges and advised the Centre, collegium and Chief Justice to solve this matter.

Taking on the Centre for sitting over appointments of High Court judges, the Chief Justice of India earlier in the day asserted that the ruling dispensation's attitude was lackadaisical from the very issue of filling vacancies to providing adequate infrastructure.

Stating that there are 500 judges' posts lying vacant in High Courts, Thakur said that courtrooms are lying vacant without judges.

He further said that in principle, the judiciary was not against the formation of Tribunals because it would relieve court duties, but the problem arose from the lack of adequate infrastructure provided to the Tribunals.

The Centre and the top court have been at war since the Supreme Court struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act, which was brought in to end more than 20-year-old practice of judges appointing judges under the collegium system, with government having no say in the process.

Earlier, the Centre had conveyed to Supreme Court that it had returned to the collegium or its reconsideration of 43 of the 77 names recommended for the appointment of judges in various High Courts and that the remaining 34 have been appointed as judges.