From April 13 this year, the Collegiums system — where judges recommended names of judges for appointment and elevation — has been done away with by the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act. The new body is yet to take shape. In these circumstances, neither the appointment nor elevation of judges to State High Courts can be made. The result is that a large number of posts of judges remain vacant in many High Courts in the country. One can imagine the sudden increase in the pendency cases in country’s High Courts. On the one hand the Government and the Supreme Court lay much emphasis on reducing pendency in the courts but on the other hand the Government has taken recourse to such legislation as obstructs reduction in pendency.
If Collegiums system that was in place, has been abolished, it should have been followed by a new system and appointment of High Court judges would have proceeded smoothly without interruption and the posts of judges would not have remained vacant nor would; pendency burgeon. As many as 384 vacancies of judges are waiting to be filled in 24 High Courts in the country. According to data compiled by the Law Ministry, as on August 1, the High Courts were facing a shortage of 384 judges as against the approved strength of 1017. Thus, the 24 High Courts are functioning with a working strength of 633 judges only.
The Chief Justice of India has indirectly expressed his disapproval of scrapping the Collegiums system when he refused to take part in a meeting with the Prime Minister in the selection committee of the panel under the new law, thus leaving the new system in a limbo. Interestingly, the Supreme Court has reserved its judgment on a clutch of petitions challenging the validity of NJAC. Obviously, the SC finds some lacunae in the decision of the NJAC in scrapping the Collegiums system. This indicates that a row between the administration and the judiciary is in the offing. Unless it is resolved, the chances of elevation of judges to the High Courts or appointments to the vacant posts of judges of High Courts may not get resolved that soon.
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