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Appointment Of Judges
The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to list a batch of pleas questioning the delay on the part of the central government in appointment of judges after the collegium reiterated their names. A bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) B R Gavai and Justice K Vinod Chandran said it will hear the pleas after two weeks after senior advocate Arvind Datar and advocate Prashant Bhushan mentioned them for urgent listing, saying the petitions were listed in 2023 but were suddenly dropped from the cause list. "There are names of some judges which were reiterated in 2019, then 2020 and 2022, but till now they have not been cleared. This court has a fixed time limit for taking decisions at every stage. A delay of a few weeks is understandable but a delay of four years is not understandable at all," Datar said. Eventually, what happens is that the candidate whose name has been recommended for judgeship by the Supreme Court Collegium gradually loses interest and seniority, he said. The counsel also
Against 334 vacancies in various high courts, 118 recommendations made by HC collegiums are at various stages of processing, while the government is yet to receive recommendations for 216 vacancies of judges, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday. In a written reply, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said as on March 10, there was no vacancy in the Supreme Court. In the 25 HCs, against the sanctioned strength of 1,114 judges, 780 judges were working -- a shortfall of 334. "Presently, there are a total of 118 proposals recommended by High Court Collegiums which are at various stages of processing. The recommendations against 216 vacancies in the high courts are yet to be received from the High Court Collegiums," he said. While filling up of vacancies in the high courts is a continuous, integrated and collaborative process requiring consultation and approval from various constitutional authorities, vacancies keep on arising on account of retirement, resignation or elevation of judges to t