Sensitive material… Attorney General tells Supreme Court why there is delay in appointment of Chief Justice of High Court

New Delhi: Attorney General R Venkataramani on Friday told the Supreme Court that sensitive material in the possession of the Centre was hampering the collegium’s recommendations for the appointment of high court chief justices. he/she asked the court what was hindering the implementation of decisions taken by the collegium, which has the sole authority over appointments to constitutional courts.What did the Attorney General say?
The Attorney General said that he/she has received some inputs from the Center and some of these are of sensitive nature, so the government is preventing filing of the affidavit. This is because putting these issues in the public domain would neither be in the interest of the institution nor in the interest of the individuals involved. Venkataramani told a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud that I would like to put the inputs and my suggestions in a sealed envelope for the perusal of the judges. After this, the Supreme Court requested the Law Officer to resolve the issues hampering the implementation of the nearly two-month-old Supreme Court Collegium recommendation for the appointment of seven High Court Chief Justices. The bench was hearing a PIL seeking to make it mandatory for the Central Government to implement the recommendations of the Supreme Court Collegium expeditiously instead of hindering it.

These people were recommended
On July 11, the Supreme Court Collegium comprising CJI Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai recommended to the Centre the appointment of Justice Manmohan as CJ of Delhi High Court, Rajiv Shakdher as CJ of Himachal Pradesh, Suresh Kumar Kaith as CJ of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, G S Sandhawalia as CJ of Madhya Pradesh, N M Jamdar as CJ of Kerala, Tashi Rabstan as CJ of Meghalaya and K R Sriram as CJ of Madras High Court.

hearing adjourned to next week
There are several other recommendations of the Supreme Court Collegium for appointments and transfers of High Court judges, which are pending with the government. During the hearing, the CJI revealed that he/she had spoken to the Attorney General on Thursday and requested him/her to resolve the issues that are coming in the way of implementation of the Collegium’s proposals. The bench adjourned the hearing to next week to await the Attorney General’s response.

Unlike the storm and fury displayed in the past by a bench headed by Justice S K Kaul while strongly criticising the Central government for delay in implementing appointments recommended by the collegium, the CJI-led bench asked the top law officer to try to persuade the Centre to expeditiously clear appointments to high courts where there is a pendency of 60 lakh cases but 30% of the posts of judges are lying vacant.