Govt notifies appointment of five judges to apex court

As reported first by HT on Saturday, the notifications were issued late in the evening after the presidential assent to the elevation of the high court judges, who are expected to be sworn in on Monday by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud.

The Union government on Saturday notified the appointment of five new judges to the Supreme Court, a day after a nudge from a top court bench that observed that unexplained delay in clearing names recommended by the collegium was creating “issues of faith” between the judiciary and the executive. The five names remained pending with the government for almost two months.

On Thursday, Union law minister Kiren Rijiju told Parliament that no timeline can be set down for filling up of vacancies of the judges in the constitutional courts, as he flagged that several high courts across the country are in breach of the six-month deadline for making recommendations for anticipated vacancies. (PTI)

As reported first by HT on Saturday, the notifications were issued late in the evening after the presidential assent to the elevation of the high court judges, who are expected to be sworn in on Monday by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud.

Those elevated to the Supreme Court are justices Pankaj Mithal (Rajasthan high court chief justice), Sanjay Karol (Patna high court chief justice), PV Sanjay Kumar (Manipur high court chief justice), Ahsanuddin Amanullah (Patna high court judge), and Manoj Misra (Allahabad high court judge). Union law minister Kiren Rijiju announced the appointment of the new judges to the top court in a tweet on Saturday evening.

With their appointments, the top court will have 32 out of its sanctioned strength of 34 judges. While these five names were pending with the government since December 13, the collegium has made the recommendation for the remaining two vacancies as well last week.

HT on Saturday morning reported that the names were cleared on Friday evening, hours after attorney general (AG) R Venkataramani gave an assurance to the bench led by justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul that these appointments may come “very soon”, even as he added that it would not be proper to put down the timeline for making these appointments in the judicial order.

Responding, the bench had observed that lack of consistency in the time taken by the Centre to clear names was creating “issues of faith” between the judiciary and the executive.

The court eventually accepted the AG’s request and refrained from specifying the period within which the appointments will be notified, but implored Venkataramani to ensure that it is done before the matter is heard next on February 13.

While hearing a contempt plea complaining against inordinate delay by the Centre in clearing names, the bench on Friday had also taken strong exception to the government sitting over almost a dozen recommendations pertaining to the transfer of high court judges and appointment of a chief justice, making it clear that “any delay in transfers may result in administrative and judicial actions which may not be palatable”.

Warning the government against “any third-party interference in the transfer cases”, the bench told the AG that the judicial work of the judges — proposed to be transferred, could be withdrawn if the recommendations are not implemented soon.

The bench, during the Friday hearing, also referred to the collegium’s decision on January 25 to recall its resolution for the appointment of Orissa high court judge Jaswant Singh as the chief justice of the same high court, and to propose his appointment as the chief justice of Tripura high court.

Venkataramani, on his part, requested the bench to defer the proceedings on this aspect. The bench proceeded to record in its order that further delays in notifying transfers may prompt the court to pass “administrative and judicial orders” on the next date.

On Thursday, Union law minister Kiren Rijiju told Parliament that no timeline can be set down for filling up of vacancies of the judges in the constitutional courts, as he flagged that several high courts across the country are in breach of the six-month deadline for making recommendations for anticipated vacancies.

“As on January 30, recommendations in respect of 236 vacancies (191 existing and 45 anticipated vacancies during next six months) are yet to be received from high court collegium, which are in breach of six months’ advance timeline for making recommendation for anticipated vacancies,” emphasised the minister.

Rijiju also informed the Upper House that the Centre returned 18 proposals to the Supreme Court Collegium pertaining to promotions of high court judges in the last three years, adding that the collegium reiterated and sent back files in six of the above cases while additional inputs were sought from the high court collegium in seven cases and names were returned to the high courts in the remaining five.

The law minister’s statements came amid an ongoing confrontation between the executive and judiciary over the judges’ selection mechanism and the division of powers between the two. The tussle, over the last few months, witnessed Rijiju and Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar criticising the collegium system of appointing judges over concerns of transparency and assumption of authority by the Supreme Court through its judgments to appoint judges in the constitutional courts.

The top court, in a series of judicial proceedings, responded with reminders to the government that the collegium system is the law of the land that must be followed by the government “to a T”, while severely reproaching the Centre for sitting over a large number of collegium’s recommendations without specifying reasons.