Pulled up by CJI, Centre suggests 6-month deadline to decide on judges

New Delhi: After being pulled up by the CJI for ‘sitting’ on its recommendations for appointments and transfers of judges, the Centre on Monday proposed a 6-month deadline to process the judicial appointments.

According to a report in The Indian Express, the CJI is yet to respond to the proposal submitted by the government in the revised Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for appointment and transfer of judges.

Earlier in the month, the government came under scathing criticism from the Supreme Court for failing to respond in time to the list of names detailing the collegium recommendations.

The CJI wondered if the Narendra Modi government was trying to bring the entire judicial system to a grinding halt.

The collegium headed by CJI Thakur and the Centre have been at loggerheads over the process of appointments.

Initially, over 400 vacancies, pending since April 2015, had not been filled up. Subsequently recommendations were made from February this year. Of the over 160 recommendations, the Centre cleared 55, but the rest have not being processed, resulting in most high courts functioning with less than 50 per cent capacity and accumulation of cases.