'Some progress' made in judicial appointments: SC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday observed that "some progress" has been made in the process of judicial appointments.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra made the observation while hearing a plea filed by the Madras Bar Association seeking a strict timeline at every stage of judicial appointments.

The top court said that some appointments have already been made and adjourned the matter for hearing in the first week of August.

The plea has sought directions to the Centre to process recommendations made by the apex court and the high court collegium.

"The arbitrary and inordinate delay by the Executive in the appointment of Judges to the Higher Judiciary is violative of Articles 14, 19 and 21 of the Constitution," it said.

The petition claimed that more than a hundred appointments to the high courts are stuck at various stages of the appointment process. This, it is contended, amounts to an exercise of indirect veto by the Executive.

Senior Advocate Arvind Datar appeared for the Madras Bar Association.

The matter was heard by a Bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud.

The petition called for directions to the Centre to process recommendations made by the Supreme Court.

With a view to preventing this from happening any longer, the petitioners urged the Court to set specific timelines in the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for the appointment of judges.

“…the existing MOPs are entirely silent on the timelines for the appointment of Judges to this Hon’ble Court and Permanent Judges to the High Courts, thus giving the Executive a carte blanche to stonewall the recommendations sent by the respective Collegia.”

It was further argued that though the MoPs do not provide a specific timeframe within which appointments must be processed, the Supreme Court in the Second Judges case stressed that undue delays must be avoided.

The petition also highlighted the burgeoning vacancies across the twenty-four high courts in the country, as a result of the stalling of appointments. As per the latest statistics, 420 high court posts are lying vacant, while the Supreme Court has 8 vacancies.

“…the failure to fill up the vacancies has exponentially increased the workload on the sitting Hon’ble Judges of the Higher Judiciary. As a result, the quality of justice delivery system has been adversely impacted, and further delays would render the functioning of courts unmanageable…”

(With input from PTI)