NEW DELHI: The delay in appointments of judges could be due to thorough background check of candidates recommended by the Supreme Court collegium.
Government sources said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has stressed considering the names without succumbing to any pressure from within or outside.
While there was an intense pressure to expeditiously clear appointments in view of mounting vacancy and pendency, Modi in a recent internal meeting made it clear that even if there is an iota of doubt, government will not accept the names. “We will not come under pressure. We want clean people in judiciary and if the process requires some time, so be it,” Modi is told the meeting.
The delay in judicial appointments is attributed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s emphasis on background checks of candidates recommended by the Supreme Court collegium.
Following Chief Justice T S Thakur’s criticism of the government over delay in appointments in High Courts, the PM met Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to discuss the issue of pending files with the ministry. “In certain cases, the ministry has observed the need for re-examination of files. The law minister is said to have given five-seven examples of cases recommended for High Court appointments where the files have been forwarded for a fresh background scrutiny. It was made clear to the PM that in some cases, pressure was also from within the government,” sources said on condition of anonymity.
There had been an unprecedented increase in vacancies on account of differences between the executive and judiciary over the memorandum of procedure after the apex court quashed the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) Act and restored the collegium system. Modi seems to have made it clear that the executive will not merely play a formal role by clearing recommendations by collegium without ensuring thorough scrutiny.
The law ministry is yet to take a decision on 227 files related to judges’ appointments, while it has forwarded 78 names to the Chief Justice-led collegium for the consideration of appointments. As many as 478 vacancies are vacant in 24 High Courts and that nearly 39 lakh cases are pending there.
On August 15, CJI Thakur had made his displeasure with the government public and said he hoped the PM would talk about speedy justice and appointment of judges in his I-Day speech.
A week ago, the CJI flagged a list of 75 names which the collegium had forwarded to the Centre for appointment as High Court judges since February, which are pending with the government. He had pulled up the NDA government for bringing the judicial system to a grinding halt due to the Centre’s inefficiency in taking decisions over appointments cleared by the SC collegium.