Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi on Saturday said the judiciary must recognise the ‘lakshman rekha’ and be ready for introspection, hours after Chief Justice of India TS Thakur and the Centre publicly differed over vacancies in judges’ posts.
“Everyone, including judiciary, must recognise there is lakshman rekha and be ready for introspection,” Rohatgi said.
Earlier in the day, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad differed with CJI Thakur who said 500 judges’ posts were vacant in high courts. “Five hundred judges’ posts are vacant in the high courts. They should be working today, but they are not. At present, there are several vacant courtrooms in India but no judges available. A large number of proposals are still pending and hope the government will intervene to end this crisis,” Justice Thakur said while addressing an All India Conference of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).
Disagreeing with the CJI, Law Minister Prasad said the government has made 120 appointments this year which was the second highest since 1990. The highest number of appointments of 121 were made in 2013, Prasad said.
“We respectfully disagree with him (CJI). This year we have made 120 appointments. The second highest of 121 is of 2013. Since 1990 there have been only 80 appointments. Five thousand vacancies are there in the lower judiciary in which the government of India has no role to play. That is something only for the judiciary to take care.”
On October 28, a bench headed by Thakur had slammed the Centre for sitting over the top court collegium’s recommendations on the appointment of high court judges, saying the action amounted to paralysing and locking out the judiciary.
In April this year, Thakur during a joint conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts, broke down and urged the government to improve the infrastructure and fill up vacancies in the courts.
