The Supreme Court’s allegation that the government was stalling appointments of high court judges is an indication that the face-off between the two is getting more complicated by the day.
Chief Justice of India TS Thakur has expressed his frustration over the inordinate delay in judicial appointments. At a function where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present in the national capital earlier this year, he was almost in tears while talking about the problem.
Read | Why don’t you shut down courts? SC slams govt over delay in appointing judges
His anger is understandable. Many courtrooms in high courts are locked because there are no judges. Most high courts are functioning at less than 60% of their strength even as the collegium’s recommendations for appointments have been pending for months. More than 450 posts of judges out of the sanctioned strength of 1,079 are vacant while close to 3.9 million cases are pending in 24 high courts. The apex court — which has a sanctioned strength of 31 — has five vacancies. The situation is likely to get worse next month as two SC judges are slated to retire.
The government has its own arguments. Had it intended to stall, it would not have appointed 86 new judges to the high courts, four to the Supreme Court, 14 chief justices to the high courts and accepted the collegium’s recommendations for the transfer of four chief justices and 33 judges from the high courts since December.
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