On Friday (13th September), the Attorney General of India told the Supreme Court that the Union government has received some ‘sensitive material’ which is delaying the appointment of Chief Justices of 7 High Courts. This comes nearly two months after the Supreme Court collegium had recommended these appointments.
It is pertinent to note that the Collegium holds the final authority on appointments to constitutional courts but the Union government gathers information about the potential appointees, such as their track record, any criminal record, or activities/links that could harm national interests before executing the recommendations of the SC collegium.
A three-judge SC bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra was hearing a PIL that has sought directions to implement the recommendations of the Collegium in a time-bound manner.
Explaining the delay in the appointment of these seven Chief Justices of High Courts, Attorney General R Venkatramani said, “I have received some information…I’ll share it, information is confidential, sensitive, I’d like to place it on record.”
The attorney general further stated that the government was refraining from filing an affidavit as putting these issues in the public domain would neither be in the interest of the institution nor of the personalities involved.
Venkatramani added, “I would like to place the inputs and my suggestions in sealed cover for perusal by the judges.”
Earlier, on 11th July, the SC collegium comprising CJI Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai had recommended the appointment of Chief Justices of seven High Courts. These included – the appointment of Justices Manmohan as CJ of Delhi HC, Rajiv Shakdher as CJ of Himachal Pradesh, Suresh Kumar Kaith as CJ of J&K and Ladakh, G S Sandhawalia as CJ of Madhya Pradesh, N M Jamdar as CJ of Kerala, Tashi Rabstan as CJ of Meghalaya and K R Shriram as CJ of Madras HC.
Furthermore, there are many more recommendations of the SC collegium which are pending before the Union government. They include appointments and transfers of HC judges.
During the hearing, the CJI-led bench made efforts to persuade the Attorney General to convince the Union government to expeditiously clear the appointments to the HCs. Currently, there is a pendency of 60 lakh cases before the High Courts but 30% of HC judges’ posts are lying vacant.
CJI DY Chandrachud also revealed that he had a conversation with the AG on Thursday. He had requested him to “sort out” the issues that are delaying the appointments that had been recommended by the Collegium.
The bench will now hear the matter on 20th September.
