250 high court judges being cleared: Ravi Shankar Prasad

NEW DELHI: Responding to CJI T S Thakur’s criticism, law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told Dhananjay Mahapatra that 250 names for HC judges were in various stages of processing and would be
cleared soon.
"The government fully respects the independence of judiciary. We are equally keen that process to finalize the memorandum of procedure does not delay the appointment of judges to high courts.The executive and the judiciary need to work together on this," he told TOI.
"The Supreme Court had on December 16 asked the government to frame afresh the memorandum of procedure for appointment of judges in consultation with the CJI and other senior judges to improve the working of the collegium system and bring in transparency. The government respects the proposals for appointments. But it does not want to give a go-by to wider consultation, including taking the views of the chief ministers and governors of concerned states," Prasad said.
Pendency of petitions in the SC challenging the constitutional validity of National Judicial Accountability Commission stalled the appointment of judges for nearly a year.
After the NJAC was quashed, the law minister had written to the CJI for commencing the process for fresh appointment of judges to the HCs irrespective of the deliberations between the executive and the judiciary for finalization of memorandum of procedure .
More than 50 appointment of judges to the HCs have been cleared and several appointment of CJs to HCs as well as transfers from one HC to another have been effected since January, Prasad said.
Though the government has not completely stalled the appointment of judges to HCs, it appears to have been reduced to a trickle when juxtaposed to the vacancy position of 478 posts in the HCs.
Prasad said, "Nearly 250 names sent by the collegium for appointment of judges to the HCs are in various stages of processing and the government would clear them as soon as all requirements for the high constitutional office were met."