NEW DELHI: The West Bengal Government and Calcutta High Court took the Supreme Court head-on for pushing for centralised mechanism for selection of judges in lower judiciary and told the apex court that it was unconstitutional and against the federal structure to take away their rights to appoint judges.

Pushing for major judicial reform meant to bring uniformity in the selection process and curb the practice of favouritism and nepotism in selection of judges in lower judiciary, the Supreme Court is considering to introduce a common test for selection of judges and had sought suggestions from states and high courts on the issue. A bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justices A K Goel and A M Khanwilkar had said the centralised examination system would ensure timely filling up of vacancies which was a prime reason for the huge backlog of cases.

Opposing the proposed mechanism, senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi, appearing for the West Bengal government, contended that the SC could not take away the power of states and high courts to appoint judges and questioned why the apex court was deciding the issue on the judicial side. He said the SC should have taken the decision on the administrative side as the states would have then the option to challenge the decision.

“High courts are constitutional bodies and they have their own independence and empowered with roles. How can their rights be taken away? This is a pure legislative exercise and the SC should refrain from interfering in it. If the court passed the judicial order, there was no platform to challenge it and the states and HCs would be forced to fall in line or they would have to face contempt,” Dwivedi contended.

The senior advocate, at the beginning of his submission, told the bench that he would have to criticise Supreme Court on this issue but he would be within his limits. The bench asked him to make his submission without any fear.

Senior advocate Jaideep Gupta, appearing for the Calcutta High Court, supported the contentions of Dwivedi and said the Constitution granted power to the HC on appointment of judges and SC should not take away those rights.

“It is the HC which is to decide selection process and there cannot be an external selection process,” he said. The hearing remained inconclusive and would resume on August 21.

The bench, however, tried to allay their apprehension and said it was not intending to implement All India Judicial Services but only to evolve a mechanism for conducting test. “We would not interfere in the appointment process and states would be allowed to follow their own procedure as per their rules and reservation policy,” the court said.

The total sanctioned strength of judicial officers in district and subordinate courts was 21,320 as on June 30, 2016. Of these, 16,383 have been filled, leaving 4,937 vacancies. Lack of sufficient number of judges in lower courts has resulted in staggering number of pendency of cases. As per the National Judicial Data Grid, the pendency in district courts is around 2.7 crore and ten per cent them — 2,32,3781 — are cases pending over 10 years.

