Govt doesn’t accept 14 collegium picks for HC judges

NEW DELHI: The Union government has declined to accept 14 names for appointment in the high courts as judges, asking the Supreme Court collegium to review its recommendations. The numbers include the oldest recommendation made by the collegium back in July 2019.

According to people familiar with the development, it has taken more than a year for the government to decide on returning 10 of these 14 names while two of them have been sent back for the second time even after the collegium reiterated them.

Those names returned for reconsideration earlier this month included five names for appointment in the Calcutta high court which had been pending with the government since July 25, 2019, despite the final recommendation of the SC collegium.

Similarly, one name for the Jammu and Kashmir high court had been pending for almost 21 months while another one not accepted by the government for the same court was forwarded in March this year after additional inputs sought by the government regarding the advocate’s legal practice. Pending for 11 months, four names for the Delhi high court have also been returned, the people cited above said.

Apart from those being sent back for a reconsideration for the first time, the government has also opted to seek a review of two names for the second time. This, even though the memorandum of procedure (MOP), which guides the appointment of judges in the higher judiciary, makes it clear that the government is bound by the decision of the collegium after the names are reiterated.

The government has demanded reconsideration of two names meant for the Karnataka and Kerala high courts. Of the two names returned for the Karnataka high court, one was initially recommended in October 2019 and reiterated in March this year.

Similarly, despite the collegium’s reiteration of a name for the Kerala high court in March this year after rejecting all objections, the government has chosen not to clear a name for that court.

As of August 1, 455 posts of high court judges were 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. The high courts of Delhi, Allahabad, Calcutta, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Patna, Punjab and Haryana, Rajasthan and Telangana face shortage of more than one-third of their total judges’ strength.

The files have been sent back after attorney general KK Venugopal assured the top court in April that the government will take a decision on the oldest pending names within three months. Later in April, the Supreme Court had in a judgment set down 18 weeks as an outer time limit within which the Centre is expected to process the names for appointment of high court judges, besides notifying appointments once the names are reiterated by its collegium.

However, on August 9, citing huge vacancies of judges across the high courts in the country, the Supreme Court had come 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.

“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,” a bench, headed by justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, told a government law officer on August 9.