SC slams govt over judicial vacancies
Top court warns that the government’s administration will also come to a standstill if this attitude continues
Citing massive vacancies of judges across the high courts in the country, the Supreme Court on Monday came down heavily on the Union government for bringing the “third pillar of democracy to a standstill” by not appointing judges and warned that the government’s administration will also come to a standstill if this attitude continues.
“The government authority must realise that this is not how it will work. If you want to bring the judicial system to a standstill, your system will also come to a standstill... The line has been crossed by the government. You cannot let the third pillar of democracy come to a standstill,” rued a bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hrishikesh Roy.
“There is a huge paucity of judges but you are not interested... If the judicial system is sought to be brought to a working halt, then your administrative system will also come to a working halt. It is time you (government) realise this,” it told additional solicitor general Madhvi Divan, who was appearing for the central government.
As on August 1, a total of 455 posts of high court judges are lying vacant in the 25 high courts across the country against the total strength of 1,098.
The vacancy translates to more than 41% of the total strength. High courts of Delhi, Allahabad, Calcutta, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Patna, Punjab and Haryana, Rajasthan and Telangana face shortages of more than one-third of their total judges’ strength. The bench was hearing an appeal filed by the Centre against an order of the Delhi high court in an antidumping duty matter when it remarked that the top court was “exasperated” by the attitude of the government in delaying the appointment of judges despite final recommendations made by the collegium and orders passed to lay down timelines for appointments.
On her part, the ASG complained about the delay that may be caused before the expert body of anti-dumping because of the pendency of the matter before the high court. But the court shot down her request to interfere.
“The government of India cannot take an argument that a judge is not able to hear cases expeditiously because the government itself does not appoint judges in the high courts. The Chief Justice of India (CJI) has last week talked about tribunals. The situation in the high court is also the same. You (government) have reduced the number of judges to almost half the sanctioned strength,” the bench told the ASG. On Friday, a bench led by CJI NV Ramana had asked the Union government if it wants all tribunals wrapped up since they were unable to function due to a massive shortage of manpower.
On Monday, the Justice Kaulled bench trained its gun at the Centre. The bench told the law officer: “The scenario of inability to hear your petition early arises out of your inability to appoint judges. This is our view and grievance, both. You want to have a time-bound investigation but you cannot have it without time-bound scrutiny and that will require appointment of judges. The government does not take this point. You don’t make appointments after collegium recommends. We also gave you time-bound directions to appoint judges but you have not done that either.”
The ASG, on her part, submitted that she was appearing only for one department (department of revenue) and that delay in deciding the present matter would impact the domestic industry which will not be in the public interest.
At this, the courwt retorted: “It is also in the public interest that people get their adjudications done within a reasonable time and that they have enough judges to do it. But since you cannot do it, let the domestic industry realise that you cannot help them because you cannot appoint judges. You are taking all the burden to the apex court which is supposed to be dealt with by high courts. But we cannot ask the high courts to hear you expeditiously since you have not appointed judges there and they are already overburdened.”
While dismissing the petition, the court recorded in its order: “We are facing the problem because the attitude of the government in not appointing judges where the recommendations have been made by the collegium...The real issue is that the high court is not able to accommodate the matter early. This is a result of the non-appointment of judges at a high court located in the capital of the country.”
It noted that the Delhi high court is at present working with less than 50% of judges.
It set down 18 weeks as an outer time limit within which the Centre is expected to process the names for appointments of the high court judges.