The Supreme Court on Tuesday prescribed a judicially mandated timeline for the Union government to make appointment of judges in the high courts, underscoring that “promptness in this process [is] to facilitate the larger cause of dispensation of timely justice”.
The court, for the first time, indicated an outer time limit within which the Centre is expected to process the names for appointments of the high court judges, besides notifying appointments once the names are reiterated by its collegium. While the existing Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) that guides judicial appointments has not suggested any period within which the Centre is supposed to forward the recommendations to the Supreme Court collegium, a bench, headed by Chief Justice of India SA Bobde, set down 18 weeks to complete this process.
“The High Courts are in a crisis situation,” said the bench, which also included justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Surya Kant, as it regretted that the high courts have a shortage of around 40% judges, requiring a “collaborative” exercise involving the judiciary and the government.
Breaking down the total time period of 18 weeks, the bench held that after high courts send their recommendations to the Union law ministry, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) should not take more than eight weeks to give its inputs to the ministry regarding the proposed names.
{{/usCountry}}Breaking down the total time period of 18 weeks, the bench held that after high courts send their recommendations to the Union law ministry, the Intelligence Bureau (IB) should not take more than eight weeks to give its inputs to the ministry regarding the proposed names.
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After receiving the inputs from the IB and the state government concerned, the Centre should process these names within eight to 12 weeks, and send them to the Supreme Court collegium with their comments for a final approval, taking a maximum 18 weeks in the entire process.
As laid down in the MoP, the Supreme Court collegium, led by the CJI, will send its final recommendations in the next four weeks, and these recommendations will preferably be put up before the Prime Minister, who will advise the President in the matter of appointment. The court has said that in case the government has any reservation regarding certain recommendations, those names may be sent back to the Supreme Court collegium with specific reasons.
However, the bench held, if the collegium reiterates the recommendations unanimously, “such appointment should be processed and appointment should be made within three to four weeks”. The current MoP does not lay down a timeline also for the cases when collegium reiterates names.
The court also emphasised the requirement of the chief justices of the 25 high courts to recommend vacancies as early as possible, and as and when new vacancies arose, irrespective of whether their old recommendations were cleared or not. By prescribing the timeline, the bench dismissed a contention that this subject was beyond the ambit of judicial directives. It noted that the restraint imposed by the Constitution bench in the Third Judge’s Case (1998) related to the judicial review of particular appointments, and not to the aspects of the appointment processes such as delays. The order by the apex court came at a time when high courts in the country have a staggering vacancy of 411 judges -- more than a third of the total positions, as on April 1.