SC asks govt to clarify status of 55 judicial recommendations pending for 6 mths-1.5 yrs

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Union government to clarify the status of 55 recommendations the Collegium had made for judicial appointment in various high courts, that have been pending a response or confirmation for the last six months to one-and-a-half years.

The special bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde asked Attorney General K K Venugopal to enquire with the government about the status of these recommendations and file a report on the same by April 8.

As per the list of these recommendations that were handed to the AG by the court, 44 of the pending recommendations were made by the Collegium seven months to one year ago for appointments to high courts in Calcutta, Madhya Pradesh, Gauhati, Rajasthan and Punjab.

Of the other 10 names on the list of pending recommendations, five were for appointments to the Calcutta High Court, pending for one year and seven months and the other five were for appointments to the Delhi High Court, pending for around seven months.

The Supreme Court bench called it a "matter of grave concern" and questioned when the government thought it would be deciding on the recommendations. The court also noted that the Collegium and the government's "thought process" needed to be modulated and that a time frame should be set to finalise the appointments.

Senior advocate Vikas Singh, the president of the Supreme Court Bar Association, also added that there should be an institutional process by which senior lawyers practising in top courts are considered for judgeships in high courts. He argued that this consideration should be made as a rule and not as an exception.

The CJI said the court agreed with Singh but there was a problem as some State Bar Associations consider these lawyers as outsiders.

The total sanctioned judicial strength in the 25 High Courts is 1,080. However, the present working strength is 661 with 419 vacancies as on March 1.