More judges please: Till collegium’s there GoI must clear names fast

The Supreme Court issuing notice to the Union law secretary over the delay in greenlighting collegium-cleared judge appointments again brings a long-simmering issue to a boil. Justices Kaul and Oka said it was unacceptable that the Centre was neither appointing nor communicating its reservations on the 11 names reiterated by the collegium. It is becoming “some sort of a device” to compel these persons to withdraw their consent, the bench said, arguing that delays like these makes the judiciary lose the services of talented candidates, who lose patience after a while.

Union law minister Kiren Rijiju has criticised the collegium system. CJI DY Chandrachud told this newspaper that there was no need for gamesmanship and grandstanding. He said the collegium ensures judicial independence but also said the system could do with more transparency and diversity in appointments. None of this helps, however. Neither has GoI attempted to revive the National Judicial Appointments Commission since 2015, nor has SC taken meaningful, proactive steps towards fostering transparency or diversity.

Therefore, given that the law as it stands now authorises the collegium to propose judicial appointments, there must be no inordinate delays in appointing judges cleared by the body – GoI should object only in rare cases and do so quickly. The Centre is free to enact an NJAC – and it should – but until then both the collegium and GoI must adhere to set timelines – for instance, it is 3-4 weeks when collegium reiterates a recommendation – in clearing names. The Bombay high court chief justice Dipankar Datta, who was recommended by the collegium for elevation to SC in late September, hasn’t been appointed yet and the reasons aren’t clear. There are seven vacancies in SC and 335 in HCs. Each vacancy filled could have shrunk their combined pendency burden of 60 lakh cases by hundreds of cases every month. GoI and SC must think of ordinary litigants who suffer.