NEW DELHI: With the Supreme Court collegium recommending names for elevation to various high courts, Chief Justice of India NV Ramana on Saturday said he is hoping that the Centre will clear these recommendations at the earliest. During a function organised by Bar Council of India to facilitate the CJI, where Law Minister Kiren Rijiju was also present, he lauded the Centre’s move to clear all the nine names for appointment to Supreme Court in a week’s time.
“I told him (Kiren Rijiju) that pending vacancies are an issue and he cleared all the nine names within seven days. This was a record time. I expect the same speed for the high court names recommended by us. With a young and dynamic law minister in office, we can expect positive developments at a rapid pace,” the CJI said.
The collegium headed by CJI Ramana, has in the past 10 days alone, recommended 68 names for appointment to various high courts. A number of recommendations were made prior to that as well.
“Collegium recommended 82 names yesterday for high courts. We hope the Centre will clear these names as the nine names for Supreme Court was cleared,” the CJI said.
The CJI also said that while he received praise for appointing nine judges to the top court in a short span of time, it was actually the entire Collegium which put in the effort. “You all praised me for the appointments but I am no Tendulkar. It was team work (refers to the Supreme Court collegium),” CJI Ramana said.
The CJI also lamented the poor representation of women in the judiciary and said, “After 75 years of independence one would expect 50 per cent of women representation at all levels, but we have been able to achieve only 11 per cent in the Supreme Court.” Since its establishment till date, the Supreme Court has had only 11 women judges out of more than 250 judges.