Apex court ticks off Centre again on judges’ appointments in HCS

NEW DELHI: The spat between judiciary and the executive over judicial appointments resurfaced in the Supreme Court on Tuesday with Chief Justice TS Thakur questioning the NDA government for sitting on files sent by the collegium to re-appoint 25 retired judges to various high courts.

“There are more than 50 per cent vacancies in high courts. These are people (judges) who are retired, tried and tested. Since the process to appoint new ones takes time, a resolution to re-appoint retired judges was adopted in the chief justices and chief ministers’ conference. But 25 files are still lying with you,” a bench headed by Chief Justice Thakur told additional solicitor general Maninder Singh.

The court made its remark while hearing a 2012 petition related to the improvement of infrastructure in subordinate judiciary for speedy disposal of cases.

The Constitution also prescribes for re-appointment of retired HC judges as ad-hoc judges for a period not exceeding two years.

The judiciary and executive have been at loggerheads since October last when the SC constitution bench struck down the law that allowed government interference in judicial appointments. The law ended decadesold collegium procedure under which judges appoint judges, a situation unique to India.

The court’s observation came when Singh submitted the government was ready to take all initiatives to reduce the backlog of cases in the country, especially in the lower judiciary where about 2.5 crore cases are pending. There are around 5,000 vacancies in the trial courts.

He said under the 14th Finance Commission recommendation, the Centre had allocated Rs 9000 cr for infrastructural development of high courts/subordinate courts for the period starting from April 2015. Singh added the strength of judges should be increased only after the present vacancies are filled.

This failed to assuage the bench which asked Singh to give details of how much money has been allocated to the states and under what heads. NEW DELHI: Sparks flew between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the other parties at a meeting here on Tuesday over deciding how Aam Aadmi Party lawmaker Bhagwant Mann should be punished for his video act that allegedly threatened Parliament’s security.

The panel is likely to recommend to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan a token oneday suspension for Mann.

When the meeting started, the BJP members demanded that Mann should be suspended for a full session. The Parliamentary probe panel’s chairman Kirit Somaiya’s draft report also recommended the same.

In a surprise move, the Congress and its arch-rivals — the AIADMK and the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) — joined hands to oppose the move. Even Shiv Sena and Trinamool Congress supported Mann.

Sources said BJD’S Lok Sabha floor leader Bhartruhari Mahtab said Mann, who had been advised to not attend the House till the panel submits its report, has already faced “enough punishment”. He also pointed out that Mann had fervently appealed to the panel and offered unconditional apology. “Mann has also said that he doesn’t want his earlier accusations against the PM and a former MP to be a part of the official record. So, what more do you want?” he said. Isolating the BJP members further, Shiv Sena member Anandrao Adsul said the panel “should not be very stringent”. “He (Mann) represents 14 lakh people of his constituency,” Adsul pointed out.