India News | HCs Often Do Not Follow Timeline to Initiate Proposals to Fill Up Vacancies of Judges: Govt
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. High courts often do not adhere to the timeline of initiating proposals to fill up vacancies six months before they arise, the government told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, noting that recommendations against 154 vacancies are yet to be received from the various HC collegiums.
New Delhi, Aug 1 (PTI) High courts often do not adhere to the timeline of initiating proposals to fill up vacancies six months before they arise, the government told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, noting that recommendations against 154 vacancies are yet to be received from the various HC collegiums.
It also said that as many as 359 posts of judges are vacant in the various high courts and 205 proposals have been received to fill up these vacancies.
In a written reply, Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal said as per the memorandum of procedure (MoP), the initiation of proposal for appointment of judges in the high courts vests with the chief justice of the concerned high court.
MoP is a set of documents that guide the appointment, transfer and resignation of high court and Supreme Court judges.
"Chief justice of the HC is required to initiate the proposal to fill up of vacancy of a high court judge six months prior to the occurrence of vacancy. However, this timeline is often not adhered to by the high courts," the minister pointed out.
Meghwal said as on July 25, the Supreme Court is functioning at its full strength of 34 judges including the Chief Justice of India.
He said as regards the high courts, against the sanctioned strength of 1,114 judges, 755 judges are working and 359 posts are vacant in the various high courts.
As many as 205 proposals for appointment of HC judges are at various stages of processing between the government and the Supreme Court Collegium.
"The recommendations against 154 vacancies are yet to be received from high court collegiums," Meghwal noted.
Responding to a separate question, the law minister said as on July 25, 24 proposals recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium for appointment of high court judges are under various stages of processing.
As per the established procedure, the high court collegiums send their recommendations for appointment of HC judges to the Department of Justice in the Union law ministry. The department then attaches its inputs and Intelligence Bureau (IB) reports on the candidates and forwards it to the Supreme Court Collegium.
The Supreme Court Collegium then takes a call on candidates it deems fit for appointment as high court judges and recommends accordingly to the government.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)