Hyderabad: The attitude of the Centre in sitting over the recommendations of the Collegium of the Supreme Court for appointment of judges has been irking the judiciary.
The Centre has put in cold storage the recommendations of the Collegium to appoint 146 judges in various High Courts across the country and also to fill vacancies in the Supreme Court. Former judges of the Hyderabad High Court say that it looks like the Centre is taking advantage of the loophole of no time-limit for accepting the recommendations.
The Supreme Court Collegium has cleared the recommendations of the collegiums of the High Courts of Allahabad, Mumbai, Calcutta, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gauhati, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madras, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab & Haryana and Tripura. The 146 names have been forwarded to the Centre for issuance of appointment orders.
The Centre has earlier cleared the appointments of five judges for the Karnataka High Court after the court’s lawyers went on hunger strike, and on March 8 it cleared the appointment of three judges to the Calcutta HC.
Justice Gopalakrishna Tamada, former judge of the Hyderabad High Court, said that though there is no time limit for the government accepting the recommendation of the Collegium, the Supreme Court can end this stalemate by taking an executive decision or by invoking its extraordinary jurisdiction under Article 32 of the Constitution.
He explained that when the Supreme Court notices that there is an abnormal delay in clearing its recommendations by the Union Law Ministry, the Chief Justice of India can call for a full court meeting and pass an executive order asking the Ministry to take a decision on its recommendation.
He also said that if someone moves a PIL (public interest litigation) before the Apex Court seeking a writ of mandamus to the Union Law Ministry to clear the pending list of appointments, the Supreme Court has the power to invoke its writ jurisdiction and direct the Ministry to take appropriate steps.
Justice Gopalakrishna said that for reasons best known to the apex court it has not initiated either of these two steps even though there are many vacancies to be filled in various High Courts across the country, including seven in the Supreme Court.
Justice B. Chandra Kumar, another former judge of the Hyderabad High Court, said that any citzen of this country is entitled to move the Supreme Court to file a writ seeking direction to the Centre to appoint the judges.
A sitting judge of the Hyderabad High Court, on condition of anonymity, said that the attitude of the Centre is adding to the pendency of cases and dents the image of the judiciary in the eyes of the common man who blames the delay in settling cases on judges without understanding the huge workload judges have to deal with due to lack of judges.
He said he is moving the Supreme Court in the next week challenging the action of the Centre in delaying the appointments of judges. "As per my knowledge, invoking writ jurisdiction of the Supreme Court is the only option in this matter," Mr Reddy said.
