NEW DELHI: With seven judicial vacancies pending, the Supreme Court seems to be looking at a crisis with six more judges retiring in 2018. The rise in vacancies is the result of the deadlock between the Supreme Court Collegium and the government over finalising a Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) to appoint judges to the apex court and high courts.
However, there is no hope in sight on the MoP ever since the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) was passed unanimously by Parliament and was then declared unconstitutional by a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court in October 2015. MoP details the procedure to be followed during judicial appointments.
While the Central government had formulated MoP, the Supreme Court sent it back for reconsideration as it gave power to the government to reject a person recommended by the Collegium. Even if the appointment of judges begin now, the whole process, as per MoP, takes six months as states, Intelligence Bureau and the Supreme Court Collegium are consulted and then the case is processed for approval. As the issue over the MoP continues, there seems to be no move to fill up the seven vacancies in the Supreme Court, which has only 24 sitting judges when the full strength should be 31.
However, seven more crucial vacancies are looming ahead with four judges who are part of the Collegium. This means the Collegium would see a complete, if not drastic, overhaul in 2018. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, Justices J Chelameswar, Madan B Lokur and Kurian Joseph are part of the five-member Collegium are retiring in 2018.
Justice Ranjan Gogoi is likely to be Chief Justice in October 2018. Justices Amitava Roy, R K Agrawal and A K Goel also retire in 2018. The to-and-fro between the Ministry of Law and Justice and the Supreme Court Collegium over the MoP started in March 2017, when the government sent its first draft to the Supreme Court. The Collegium replied on May 25 and July 1, 2016. The Collegium sent its finalised proposal on the draft on March 13, 2017.