MoP for appointment of judges to be ready soon, says CJI

Most of the issues with the government over the appointment of judges to the higher judiciary have been “sorted out”, Chief Justice of India (CJI) T S Thakur said on Thursday.

His statement comes close on the heels of his breakfast meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week. “Most of the things have been sorted out. Some issues are there which need to be discussed. I think may be in a week or two, these issues will be sorted out. Efforts are on...,” he said.

The CJI was talking to reporters on the sidelines of an event when he was asked about the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP). He said the long-pending MoP to govern appointment of judges to higher judiciary is expected to be ready in a week or two. The MoP came out of the Supreme Court verdict quashing the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act and upholding the collegium system of appointments to higher judiciary.

The government had recently acceded to some demands of the collegium, including removing the cap on the number of jurists and lawyers, who can be appointed to the apex court as judges. On Saturday, Justice Thakur drove to Raj Bhavan in Gandhinagar and greeted Modi on his 66th birthday.