NEW DELHI: Amid the standoff between the judiciary and the government over appointment of judges, a Parliamentary standing committee in its report on Thursday sought a fixed minimum term for the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and Chief Justices of the High Courts. The panel also recommended that the retirement age of the Supreme Court be further increased to deal with the issue of pending cases in the judiciary.
The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Personnel report was presented in the Lok Sabha by the MP V Sampath on Thursday. The panel expressed dissatisfaction at the existing judicial vacancies, while seeking to exhort the government to expedite the process to fill up judicial positions in the High Courts and lower courts. The panel was also critical of the government for not sticking to the timeline for judicial appointments.
The panel also argued in its report that SC Collegium should inform the candidates whose name it has rejected on a particular ground. It stated that such gestures will infuse transparency in the system. “The government also rejects the recommendations of the collegium without furnishing cogent reasons. Such practices are against the principles of natural justice and leads to opaqueness in the appointment process,” the panel stated.
The panel, while suggesting that the retirement age of the Supreme Court judges be enhanced from the current 65 to 67 years, said that the retirement age has remained unchanged since India became a Republic.
“The retirement age of High Court judges was increased from 60 to 62 in 1963,” the panel noted, while adding that “in the last 20 years, 17 Chief Justices of India have been appointed and out of those, only three had tenure of more than two years”.
It also stated that many of the judges had tenure of even less than one year. “Chief justice of High Courts in most cases gets appointed for a less than two years term. Some of the Chief Justices also get elevated to the bench of Supreme Court, which further shorten their tenure in High Courts,” the panel stated.