Process of judge appointments in High Courts must go on: CJI

Chief Justice of India T S Thakur on Saturday pushed for early appointment of judges to the High Courts, saying vacancies are likely to mount to 500 this year, with the system already under great pressure.

He said the government has expressed its willingness to resume the appointment process as per the “earlier procedure” (collegium system) and the issue of appointment of as many as 130 judges is before the Law Ministry.

The CJI was speaking after inaugurating the 14th All India Meet of State Legal Services Authorities here.

“The process of appointments got delayed for a while as the Constitutional amendment (related to National Judicial Appointments Commission or NJAC) came under challenge. “After the matter was resolved, the Law Minister (D V Sadananda Gowda), realising that the process of amendment of the memorandum of procedure may take time, wrote a letter to me that the government is willing for the process to be resumed on the basis of earlier procedure,” he said. “We immediately agreed and within a period of six weeks we cleared nearly 163 names that were stuck for more than a year with us because of the controversy regarding National Judicial Commission,” Thakur said. Of those recommendations, about 90 appointments as permanent judges and about 40 as fresh ones made to HCs have already come through and others are in pipeline, he said.