Kashish Jain
The Supreme Court sought a response from the Attorney General KK Venugopal when the Centre decided on the 55 collegiums recommendation High Court judgeships that had been pending for a long time. The Hon.ble Justice Kaul informed the Attorney General that he had prepared a chart regarding the collegiums recommendations pendency at the level of the ministry for Law and Justice and on an all-India basis. He further observed that there has to be a reasonable time frame for the Law Ministry to respond after the collegiums has made its recommendation.
These observations were made by the Bench was considering the instant case of PLR projects Ltd v. Mahanadi Coalfields Pvt Ltd. This was when the Court considered the pendency of recommendations. A Special Bench that was led by the CJI asked the Attorney-General,
“This is a matter of grave concern… When do you propose to make a decision?” Previously, the Bench commented that nearly 40% of sanctioned posts of judges were vacant. They urged the Attorney General to expedite the appointment process. On the 10 recommendations which date back a year, Justice Sanjay Krishnan Kaul stated, “neither have they been appointed nor have you (government) given us a response”.
Justice Kaul, who was accompanying the Chief Justice and Justice Surya Kant, said the “thought process” of both the government and Collegium should be modulated. He said a time frame needed to be fixed for both the Collegium and Ministry to complete the appointment process.