‘Govt. sitting on names recommended for judges’ posts’
Sparks flew when Chief Justice of India T.S. Thakur said the Centre failed to deliver on its assurance that filling judicial vacancies is its “topmost priority”, accusing the government of trying to choke justice by not appointing judges and locking up court rooms en masse.
In an open court hearing on Friday, a three-judge Bench led by Chief Justice Thakur accused the government of trying to “decimate the judiciary and lock justice out.”
“In Karnataka HC, an entire floor of courts are locked [up] because there are no judges. Once we had a situation where we had judges but no court rooms. But now there are court rooms but no judges,” Chief Justice Thakur told Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi representing the Centre.
“You may as well close down court rooms and lock justice out,” a visibly anguished Chief Justice said, before turning silent for a while. “There is a lot of passion on both sides in this matter”, the Chief Justice resumed.
He said no action had been taken for the past nine months since a Constitution Bench scrapped the NJAC law and asked the government to frame a new Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) for Judicial Appointments in a separate judgment on December 18, 2015. “Nothing is happening. For nine months, the names the Collegium gave you have been languishing with you… you have been sitting on the names. What are you waiting for,” the Chief Justice asked.http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/centre-is-trying-to-decimate-judiciary-sc/article9283128.ece
October 30, 2016 at 4:25 pm
Ever since the present rulers have started appointment in various sectors, the will of the centre prevailed in all the major appointments. Now, by having its say in judicial appointments, the rulers are trying to appoint their puppet judges who can uphold their decisions without contradicting their policies. This is detrimental to democracy and the move should be opposed .