HC chief justice appointments delayed due to 'sensitive material' with government, AG tells SC

NEW DELHI: "Sensitive material" with the Centre is holding up the implementation of the SC collegium's recommendations for appointments of chief justices of high courts, attorney general R Venkatramani told Supreme Court on Friday to explain what is impeding execution of the decisions taken by the collegium, which has the sole say in appointments to constitutional courts.

The attorney general said he has received certain inputs from the Centre and some of these are sensitive in nature, thus preventing the govt from filing an affidavit as putting these issues in public domain would neither be in the interest of the institution nor of the personalities involved.

"I would like to place the inputs and my suggestions in sealed cover for perusal by the judges," Venkatramani told a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, leading the apex court to request the law officer to "sort out" the issues impeding the implementation of the nearly two-month-old SC collegium recommendation for appointment of chief justices of seven high courts.

A bench was hearing a public interest litigation seeking to make it mandatory for the Union govt to expeditiously implement the recommendations of SC collegium instead of putting spokes in it.

It was on July 11 that SC collegium comprising CJI Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai had recommended to Centre the appointment of Justices Manmohan as CJ of Delhi HC, Rajiv Shakdher as CJ of Himachal Pradesh, Suresh Kumar Kaith as CJ of J&K 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 Shriram as CJ of Madras HC.

There are many other SC collegium recommendations for appointments and transfers of HC judges, which are pending with the govt. During the hearing, the CJI revealed that he had a conversation with the AG on Thursday and has requested him to sort out the issues standing in the way of the implementation of the collegium resolutions. The bench deferred hearing to next week to await AG's response.

Unlike the storm and fury displayed by a bench headed by Justice S K Kaul in the past while severely criticising Union govt for delaying the carrying out appointments recommended by the collegium, the CJI-led bench attempted to persuade the top law officer to convince Centre to expeditiously clear the appointments to the HCs, which have a pendency of 60 lakh cases but are handicapped with 30% of judges' posts lying vacant.

Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, and Mini Crossword.