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Govt to decide on pending names of HC judges in 3 months, A-G tells SC

The court recorded submission of the A-G while hearing a matter related to delay in appointment of judges
Last Updated 17 August 2021, 08:16 IST

Attorney General K K Venugopal on Thursday assured the Supreme Court that 10 names sent for appointment as High Court judges as far back as July, 2019 would be considered by the Union government within a period of three months.

"The government will take a decision regarding 10 names sent to it vide letters dated July 25, 2019, October 17, 2019 and August 18, 2020 which are pending from more than six months, within a period of three months and communicate the same to this court accordingly," a bench presided over by Chief Justice S A Bobde noted.

The court recorded submission of the A-G while hearing a matter related to delay in appointment of judges.

Out of 416 vacant positions of High Courts judges, as many as 196 proposals are under the consideration of the government and the Supreme Court Collegium while recommendations on remaining 220 posts were yet to be received.

There are sanctioned strength of 1080 judges in 25 High Courts across the country.

Out of 34 total posts of judges in the Supreme Court, there are vacancies of five. For which, the recommendations were yet to be received from the top court's Collegium.

These details were pointed out in a note prepared by the Attorney General on vacancy positions as on April 13.

The top court had on March 26 pulled up the central government for delaying the process of appointment of judges, saying that it has been sitting on some recommendations for more than 19 months despite the final nod of the Collegium.

Responding to the court's concerns, the note said of 196 names, a total of 80 proposals have been submitted to the Supreme Court Collegium for advice. Two cases have been referred to the SC Collegium for reconsideration and 12 have been deferred to by the SC Collegium itself.

A total of 33 recommendations by the High Court Collegium are under examination of the government for submission to the SC Collegium. There are 10 cases in which views from the state governments were awaited.

However, there are 39 fresh proposals recommended by the SC Collegium which are under examination of the government. There are four proposals which were earlier deferred by the SC Collegium but now again been recommended for consideration.

There are five proposals which have been reiterated by the SC Collegium but are under consideration of the government.

Of 196 proposals, there are 11 names which were not considered by the SC Collegium and were remitted to the High Court.

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(Published 15 April 2021, 14:39 IST)

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