Centre finalising norms for judges' appointment

The government does not have any role in stalling judges’ appointment and is trying to finalise a Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for the same, top government sources said on Friday.

The MoP, being prepared in consultation with the Chief Justice of India, is to widen the scope of consideration and include elements of transparency and accountability, they said.

They also reiterated the government’s decision to go ahead with the appointments, pending the finalisation of the MoP.

“As many as 52 high court judges’ appointment has been completed since January this year and the process is on for about 250,” they said.

During the period, 110 additional judges of the high courts  were confirmed, and four new Supreme Court judges and nine chief justices of the high courts were also appointed. The transfer of 28 judges from various high courts was also notified, they added.

Chief Justice of India (CJI) T S Thakur recently made strong observations against the government, saying the recommendations of 75 names by the Collegium were not being finalised and Prime Minister Narendra Modi also failed to make any mention of the vacancies in his Independence Day speech.

After the invalidation of the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, the Constitution bench had on December 16 asked the Union government to supplement the existing MoP with the revised one.

Subsequently, the government shot off a letter to the CJI in January, stating that it was not averse to resuming the appointment process till the MoP was in place.

“The government did not derail the appointment process...we do not have any role in stalling the appointment,” a government source  said.