New Delhi: Names of 44 judges will be cleared for appointment to the higher judiciary in three days, the Centre told Supreme Court on Friday. The Centre’s reply came during a hearing on the delay in appointment of judges to the higher judiciary.
During the hearing, the top court had asked the government to clear the pending names as early as possible. Responding to it, Attorney General R Venkataramani told the apex top court that it will follow the timeline.
He further said that out of 104 recommendations made by the collegium of high courts, that are pending with the government, 44 are likely to be cleared and sent to the Supreme Court by this weekend.
The Attorney General also added that the vacancies in Rajasthan High Court, that has the highest number of pending recommendations, will be cleared at the earliest.
He further told the SC bench that recommendations for chief justices of three high courts are under consideration and added that clearing the top court’s recommendations would take more time, as the process involved the highest level of application of mind.
However, when Justices SK Kaul and AS Oka asked the Attorney General about the five names recommended by the collegium for elevation as judges of the Supreme Court, Venkataramani said, “Would your lordships defer this for a little while? I have some inputs given to me, but I may have some difference of opinion on that.”
It is to be noted that the Supreme Court collegium, that is a body of judges headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, had last month recommended the names of five judges, including Justices Pankaj Mithal and Sanjay Karol, the chief justices of high courts of Rajasthan and Patna, for elevation as judges of the apex court.
The Supreme Court on Friday further said that "every system will have its own flaws" but the prevailing law must be followed.
"If you want to bring a new system, legislative can do it," the top court added.