Centre seeks 6-month notice by collegium, draws Supreme Court’s wrath
The bench, of Justices MB Lokur and Deepak Gupta told the attorney general that the Centre’s argument about the collegium recommending just a few names did not give the government the liberty to sit over names sent long back.
india Updated: May 04, 2018 23:25 IST

Bhadra Sinha
Hindustan Times, New DelhiThe Centre and the Supreme Court Collegium are locked in a stand-off over a three-month-old recommendation by the collegium on the appointment of chief justices of five high court.(AP)
Justice MB Lokur, one of the senior-most judges of the Supreme Court and a member of the collegium that nominates judges to the apex court, was part of a bench that criticised the government for sitting on recommendations from the collegium on judicial appointments – the first time a member of the collegium has spoken out over the stand-off between the collegium and the government on the appointment of judges.
Last week, the Centre cleared the appointment of Indu Malhotra as a judge of the Supreme Court and asked the collegium to reconsider the recommendation that Justice KM Joseph from the Uttarakhand high court be elevated to the top court. The collegium had made both recommendations together, in the first week of January.
On Friday, while hearing the plea of a petitioner from Manipur, the court witnessed exchanges between the bench and the government’s law officer attorney general KK Venugopal that highlighted various aspects of the stand-off. Venugopal complained that the Supreme Court collegium was recommending just a handful of names for the high courts working at 60% of their sanctioned strength (in terms of judges).
The bench, of Justices Lokur and Deepak Gupta told Venugopal that this did not give the government the liberty to sit over names sent long back. Not content with that, Justice Lokur then asked Venugopal to let the court know as to how many collegium proposals were pending with the government. When the AG replied he did not have the data, the bench shot back: “This is the problem with you (the government). When it comes to attacking (the) judiciary, you have the data. But when it comes to the government then you say you don’t have the figures.”
The government hasn’t decided on a three-month-old recommendation by the collegium on the appointment of chief justices of five high courts. The collegium, on April 19, sent another recommendation to the government on the appointment of high court judges and also the chief justice of Meghalaya and Manipur.
The exchange of words prompted the law officer you remark jocularly: “I think NJAC was a better option to have.” The court did not respond to that .
The law officer’s reference is to the National Judicial Appointments Commission that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government wanted to set up in an effort to streamline the appointment and transfer of judges. While a bill to this effect was passed and ratified, and also approved by the President, it was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2015. The court later admitted that it was open to making the collegium system more transparent and said the government and it would work on and decide a so-called memorandum of procedure (MOP) on this. There has been no progress on this.
The exchange of words between the bench and government’s top law officer came when the court took up a transfer petition filed by a resident of Manipur. The petitioner, who lost a case before a single-judge bench in Manipur approached the top court to allow him challenge the order before the Guwahati High Court. His plea is that he cannot file an appeal in the Manipur HC because there are only two judges there, one of whom had delivered the judgment against him. There is no full-time chief justice in Manipur too.