CJI Hopeful Of Govt's Support In Clearing Out Recommendations For Judgeship Made By SC Collegium

CJI urged the Union government to extend its support and cooperation in clearing the names of the judges so that access to justice can be facilitated. 

Chief Justice of India N V Ramana. (File Photo)

New Delhi: Chief Justice of India N V Ramana on Saturday said that the government has so far cleared only the names of seven judges out of the 106 names recommended for High Court Judges by the Supreme Court collegium. CJI urged the Union government to extend its support and cooperation in clearing the names of the judges so that access to justice can be facilitated. 

"The government has cleared seven names out of the 106 judges and one out of the nine for chief justices, so far. I expect that the government will clear the rest of the names very soon. These appointments will take care of pendency to some extent. I seek the cooperation and support of the Government to enable access to justice and to strengthen democracy," CJI was quoted by PTI in its report.

While speaking at the launch of the six-week-long 'The Pan India Legal Awareness and Outreach Campaign' by NALSA at Vigyan Bhavan in the presence of President Ram Nath  Kovind, Union Law minister Kiren Rijiju and several other SC judges, CJI said that so far the SC collegium has recommended 106 names for the appointment as High Court Judges and if the government will clear out the names it will facilitate the decrease in pending cases to "some extent."

"The government has cleared some of them (names for judgeship) and the Hon'ble Law Minister has assured that the rest of the things will come in one or two days. I thank the government for clearing these vacancies and giving quick access to justice to the people," CJI while referring to the assurance provided by the Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said.

Earlier on August 17, the apex court collegium had recommended the nine names for SC Judges which was immediately cleared by the Union government. However, since then CJI Ramana has been actively recommending the names to fill up the vacant position of various High Cout Judges. In this regard, so far the collegium had recommended the names for 106 judges and nine new chief justices in different high courts.

As per the PTI report, the 25 High Courts spread across the country have a combined sanctioned strength of 1,080 judges and as of May 1, 2021, they were functioning with 420 judges only.

(With inputs from PTI)