Kiren Rijiju, Union Law Minister, on Thursday, told the Rajya Sabha that the issue of vacancies and appointments in the higher judiciary would continue to linger till the time a new system is created.
The Minister’s written reply stated that the sanctioned strength of the Supreme Court, High Courts, district and subordinate courts was 25,011 and the working strength was 19,192 as on 12 December 2022. He said 46 judges had been appointed to the Supreme Court from 1 May 2014 to 5 December 2022. The reply stated that 69,598 cases were pending in the Supreme Court as on 1 December 2022, as per the court’s own website, and 59.56 lakh cases were pending in High Courts.
As of 5 December 2022,27 judges are working as against the sanctioned strength of 34 judges, The minister informed the House that in the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, 777 judges are working in the high courts against the sanctioned strength of 1,108, leaving a vacancy of 331.
Rijiju said, “the Centre has limited power over the appointment of judges”, while responding to queries in the Rajya Sabha during the ongoing Winter Session of the Parliament.
Replying to a question by Congress MP Rajeev Shukla in the Rajya Sabha on the number of working days of courts, Rijiju said the number of pending cases in the country was nearing 5 crore, having reached 4.90 crore.
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On the issue of vacations, the Minister’s reply stated that the Supreme Court had 224, 217 and 202 working days in 2019, 2020 and 2021, respectively. Similarly, all High Courts usually have an average of 210 working days a year.
He said there were many reasons for this, but the “primary one is the appointment of judges” and vacancies in the sanctioned strength.
“The government took many steps to reduce the pendency of cases, but the government has a very limited role in filling vacancies of judges. The collegium chooses names, and apart from that, the government has no right to appoint judges,” Mr Rijiju said.
He said the government had often conveyed to the Chief Justice of India and High Court Chief Justices to “send names (of judges) that reflect quality and India’s diversity and give proper representation to women”.
But the current system did not reflect the sentiment of parliament or the people, he remarked, appearing to imply that the government didn’t approve of the collegium’s choices.
“At this point, the government has very limited powers to reduce vacancies… I don’t want to comment much on the courts as it sometimes looks like the government is trying to interfere with the court’s powers. If you look at the provisions of the Constitution, the process of appointments was the right of the government with the consultation of the court. This changed after 1993. We are giving our support to end the pendency of cases, but till we don’t set up a new system for appointments, questions on the appointment of judges will keep being raised,” he said.
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Citing the National Judicial Appointments Commission Bill, 2014, Rijiju said Parliament had unanimously passed the Bill, but it was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2015. He said the current system of appointment of judges – the Collegium system – did not reflect the feelings of the public and the House. He said many retired judges, including members of the Constitution Bench that struck down the NJAC, have since stated publicly that striking down a Bill passed by Parliament was not right.
Asked if the government will revive the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act, Rijiju said several retired judges, prominent jurists, advocates, lawyers and leaders of political parties have opined that the striking down of the Act by a five-member Constitution bench of the Supreme Court was not correct.
In order to make the collegium system for appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and high courts more broad-based, transparent, accountable and for bringing objectivity in the system, the government enacted the Constitution (Ninety-Ninth Amendment) Act, 2014 and the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act, 2014 with effect from April 13, 2015.
However, the Acts were challenged in the apex court, which, through a judgment dated October 16, 2015, declared both Acts as unconstitutional and void.
“I don’t want to say much as it may seem like the government interfering in the judiciary. But the spirit of the Constitution says it is the government’s right to appoint judges. It changed after 1993,” he said.
“Unless the procedure of appointment of judges changes, the issue of high judicial vacancies will keep cropping up,” said the Law Minister.
Mr Rijiju has labored this point repeatedly over the past few weeks, claiming that the collegium is not what the people of India want.
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