Context
The Supreme Court has refused to heed the Centre’s plea to stop hearing a batch of writ petitions on the increasing number of judicial vacancies in High Courts across the country and the delay in filling them
Centre’s plea
The Supreme Court should deal with the delay in judicial appointments in High Courts on its administrative side and not lend its judicial weight to public interest petitions filed by individuals in a “parallel proceeding” like this.
- AG representing centre said that all problems on the delay would end if the draft Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) was finalised
Progress on MoU stalled
The government and the Supreme Court Collegium, then led by Chief Justice Khehar’s predecessor, Justice T.S. Thakur, had serious differences on several issues regarding the MoP draft, including that the AG should be consulted on judicial appointments. The last draft was handed over by the government to the Collegium in August 2016 for finalization
