New Delhi: Attorney general Mukul Rohatgi representing the Centre on Monday urged the Supreme Court not to have parallel judicial proceedings relating to appointment of judges as the issue can be sorted out on the administrative side.
During the tenure of former Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur, the PILs filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyaya and Lt. Col Anil Kabotra was entertained and the court had repeatedly pulled up the Centre for sitting over the recommendations made by the collegium on appointment of judges causing inordinate delay in appointing judges to the High Courts.
The Centre on its part had denied that there was any delay and said in 2016 alone it had appointed 126 judges to various High Courts. It had put the blame on the judiciary for not finalising the Memorandum of Procedure on appointments.
During the resumed hearing of the PIL before a new Bench of CJI J.S. Khehar and Justice N.V. Ramana, the Attorney General urged the CJI to dismiss the PILs contending that such matters should be dealt with at the administrative side through constant interaction between the executive and the judiciary and not at the judicial level.
The AG said “we don’t want any parallel proceedings as we feel it is a matter between the government and the Chief Justice of India. We assure that whatever information the CJI needed will be provided and there will not be any delay on our part.”
The AG also drew the attention of the court to the fact that after the verdict quashing the National Judicial Appointments Comm-ission, the MoP has to be put in place. “We have sent the MoP to the then CJI more than six months ago (in August 2016) and we are yet to get any response. Once the MoP is finalized all the problems can be taken care of and the issue of appointment of judges can be resolved in the administrative side” he said.
