"Give Fixed Time Frame": Supreme Court To Centre On Judge Appointments

The government blamed the delay on clearing of names on High Courts for not sending the recommendations on time.

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Centre to apprise it of a reasonable time frame within which it can respond to the recommendations made by its collegium for appointment of judges as the government said that it will adhere to the timeline fixed in the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP). The government blamed the delay on clearing of names on High Courts for not sending the recommendations on time and said that many of them have not sent the names for the last five years against the existing vacancy. The top court pointed out that there are 10 names recommended by its collegium and pending with the government for a year and half and by what time frame it expects those names to be cleared.Attorney General K K Venugopal said that the government will take a decision on those 10 names within three months. A special bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Surya Kant told Venugopal, "You leave the issue of High Courts to us. We as the Supreme Court of India will take care of High Courts and ask them to make recommendations six months ahead of the vacancy. But we are on the question of delay. Why can''t you tell us the fixed reasonable time frame within which you can respond to the names sent by collegium? Tell us a fixed reasonable time frame".