The Supreme Court on Friday rapped the Central government for “scuttling” the working of judiciary by sitting on the appointment of judges in various high courts despite the recommendation of a recruitment collegium.
A bench headed by CJI TS Thakur said, “Today we have a situation where courtrooms are locked because there are no judges. For example, Karnataka. Why don’t you lock the courts?” and added “Executive inaction is decimating the institution (judiciary).”
The bench came down heavily while hearing a public interest litigation on the judicial appointment process in 24 high courts, which together have more than 450 vacancies against the sanctioned strength of 1,041.
“You are scuttling the working of the institution,” the bench, which has been asking the government to show urgency, said. The bench disapproved of the Centre’s cherry-picking of names for Allahabad high court, where the government has cleared only two of the eight recommendations made by the Supreme Court collegium.
“Nothing is happening. For nine months, the names the Collegium gave you have been languishing with you… you have been sitting over the names. What are you waiting for? Some change in the system? Some revolution in the system?” the Chief Justice said.
He pointed out to the ‘cherry-picking’ in the Allahabad High Court where the Collegium had recommended 18 judges for appointment and the government chose eight out of them and now wants only two of the eight.
“We don’t want a situation where institutions will clash. This is not about anybody’s ego. This is not personal. This is about institutions suffering,” the Chief Justice Thakur said.
