Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets Justice AR Dave, Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar and Justice Dipak Mishra during the inauguration of Joint Conference of Chief Ministers and Chief Justices at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi.

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India T S Thakur on Sunday came down heavily on the government, saying the latter was sitting over at least 170 recommendations sent by the apex court collegium two months ago for appointment of high court judges, when many of the HCs were working at 50% of their strength.

"If you have 170 names sent to you (for appointment of HC judges) for two months, I don't understand why they are held up, where are those proposals stuck, we should know," CJI Thakur said, with law minister Sadananda Gowda sitting next to him in a joint press conference at Vigyan Bhavan at the conclusion of the two-day conference of chief ministers and chief justices of high courts.

The law minister, when asked by the CJI to give his views, admitted that there was some delay but clarified that those were on account of getting reports from several quarters (on a recommendation), including from chief ministers and the Intelligence Bureau. Gowda said his government was constantly working towards increasing the judiciary's strength.

The CJI said if the government had any objection, it should convey it to the collegium which was ready to make amends. This is, however, the first time that CJI Thakur has publicly said that the large vacancies in high courts were a result of the continuing stalemate between the judiciary and the government which started over the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) which was stuck down by the SC last October.

"The vacancies in the high courts have since increased to 470," the CJI said, adding that the appointment of 145 HC judges since the NJAC verdict had not made much difference as two-thirds of them were already working as additional judges. Only 58 of them were new appointments, which were in the pipeline before the NJAC stalemate, he explained.

He urged the government to process the 170 recommendations pending with the law ministry for the last two months. "I don't understand why and where they are stuck," the CJI said and requested the government not to link them to approval of the new Memorandum of Procedure for appointment of judges that is pending approval of the CJI.

Justice Thakur said he had recently met foreign minister Sushma Swaraj, who was coordinating with him on the MoP, and had assured that the MoP with his suggestions would be sent to the government next week. The CJI said he was largely satisfied with new MoP framed by the government.

"Why should the Intelligence Bureau take months to send its report (on judges' appointment)? Why can't the Prime Minister's Office ask the IB to send its report within 15 days? Why should the IB sit over these reports?" the CJI asked, countering the law minister's contention that it took a lot of time to get reports from various quarters.

Justice Thakur requested the law minister to rise to the occasion, looking at the urgency or the situation, and obtain clearances and hoped that clearance for the 170 appointments would be given immediately.

Times View

This newspaper has repeatedly asserted that one of the foremost duties of the state is to provide justice to its citizens and that justice that is not timely is no justice. To that end, we have consistently urged governments to enhance the strength of the judiciary to meet the needs of justice. Three decades ago, the Law Commission had recommended that India should have 50 judges for every 10 lakh people. Today, the ratio is barely a third of that. This is unacceptable. The rule of law is the cornerstone of any modern democracy and the rule of law cannot prevail where cases languish for years, sometimes decade. We can only hope that the Chief Justice himself breaking down in front of the Prime Minister will finally move the government to take decisive and rapid steps to remedy this pathetic state of affairs.

