'Put Your Own House In Order First': Attorney General's 'Lashes' To SC Over Delay In Judges' Appointment

The centre on Monday riposted to Supreme Court over its functioning that the judiciary needs to put its own house in order first. This remark came after the apex court pulled the Centre over the delay in appointing judges while hearing a matter related to lawyers' strikes in Odisha.

"Let high courts reform themselves first. Why question the government for 100-odd days in vetting a name when high courts take five years in sending names for appointments?" Attorney General KK Venugopal asked the SC.

Earlier, a bench headed by Justice Sanjay K Kaul had asked Venugopal to explain the timeline of judicial appointments in high courts and the Supreme Court through a chart, News18 reported. This chart, the AG said, told that it took 127 days for the central government to clear names after a report from the Intelligence Bureau (IB).

The bench then raised its concerns over the delay in following the IB's report, to which Venugopal retorted by asking why should the blame be on the authorities when the Supreme Court Collegium itself requires 119 days to decide despite having access to all the necessary reports.

When Venugopal informed the judges about the vacancies in the high courts and the names currently pending before the centre, Justice Joseph said that once the Collegium has reiterated the names, the government is expected to process those appointments.

This statement resulted in Venugopal questioning the Collegium system of appointing judges. He said that the government also has a role in monitoring the appointment of judges.

"Then what prevents the government from bringing a new law on this?" the bench questioned Venugopal, to which he replied that the government would bring another amendment if that is what is suggested by the apex court.

Venugopal then highlighted how the high courts of Bombay, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh took 60 months to recommend names to high courts.

"What is this 100-odd days by the government when high courts take more than five years in recommending names? Issue notices to all 25 high courts and asks them what the reasons for their delay is," Venugopal told the bench.

He also said that out of 396 vacancies across all high courts, not even a single name had been sent for 199 vacant positions. Responding to this, Justice Kaul said that the bench's endeavour is to see how the system can work better and efficiently.

The court then sought responses from the registrar-generals of all high courts about their vacancies and the tentative timeline to send the recommendations for the same.

"Inordinate delays in making recommendations in high courts. The situation in some high courts is more alarming than the others. Chief Justices must make endeavours to recommend names. There appears to be some hesitation in high courts to recommend names till the earlier recommendations are clear," the court order read.

The bench has urged Venugopal to get the recommended names cleared by the next hearing after four weeks.

Also Read: Over 3 Crore Cases Were Pending In Court Till 2017, There Is Solution To It If The Govt Intends To Address It