More judges please: Till collegium’s there GoI must clear names fast

Source: The post is based on the article “More judges please: Till collegium’s there GoI must clear names fast” published in The Times of India on 12th November 2022.  

Syllabus: GS 2 – Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary.

Relevance: About the delay in judicial appointments.

News: The Supreme Court issued notice to the Union law secretary over the delay in accepting the collegium-cleared judge appointments.

What are the concerns of the Judiciary and Government on Judicial appointments?

Recently, the Union law minister has criticised the collegium system.

The judges criticise the Centre for neither appointing nor communicating its reservations on the names reiterated by the collegium. The court observed that the collegium ensures judicial independence.

The collegium system can do with more transparency and diversity in appointments. But, neither has GoI attempted to revive the National Judicial Appointments Commission since 2015, nor has SC taken meaningful, proactive steps towards fostering transparency or diversity.

What should be done to ensure proper Judicial appointments in time?

a) There must be no inordinate delays in appointing judges cleared by the body – GoI should object only in rare cases and do so quickly, b) The Centre should to enact an NJAC. But until then, both the collegium and GoI must adhere to set timelines in clearing Judicial appointments.

There are seven vacancies in SC and 335 in HCs. Each vacancy filled could have shrunk their combined pendency burden of 60 lakh cases by hundreds of cases every month. So, the court and government should understand that the delays are hurting ordinary litigants.