Judges' appointment: At heart of row, a ‘controversial’ list

NEW DELHI: In December, the government notified new appointments of 10 additional judges for the high courts (HCs) of Gauhati, Karnataka, Punjab & Haryana, and Patna, in addition to the seven additional judges made permanent in Karnataka and Gauhati HCs, reducing the vacancies in HCs to 421 from 464.
However, the Centre has continued to register its objections to the SC collegium’s recommendations for the Allahabad HC, which originally included some relatives of former judges and politicians.Though the SC collegium is believed to have dropped many such controversial names, the government has sent back 19 recommendations for the second time to the apex court for reconsideration. These were among 37 the SC had reiterated in November.
The confrontation between the higher judiciary and the government, say sources, is over the first set of recommendations made for the Allahabad HC in January last year, wherein the SC collegium is believed to have recommended only eight of 19 advocates approved by the HC collegium, rejecting 11. There were some notable exclusion, which, a source said, did not go down well with the government.
In August, the SC collegium again recommended 27 names out of 44 suggested by the Allahabad HC. Some of those rejected by the apex court collegium were relatives of former judges and politicians. Out of 30 advocates recommended by the Allahabad HC collegium, the apex court collegium considered only 19 while the rest were from the judicial service, a source said.
On November 18, an SC bench headed by the CJI had said that the collegium had reiterated 43 names rejected by the government for appointment as HC judges. This included the 19 for Allahabad high court. (The law ministry had later claimed that the collegium had only reiterated 37 candidates, while a decision on six others was deferred by the latter.)
The confrontation between the judiciary and the government is unlikely to end very soon with the latter adamant on finalisation of the memorandum of procedure (MoP) to guide all new appointments in the higher judiciary. The new MoP suggested by the government includes a proposal to set up a permanent screening mechanism in the SC and HCs to vet candidates before the list is taken up by the collegium. The government has also proposed a clause in the new MoP that gives the Centre a veto-like power to reject any candidate suggested by the apex court collegium on the grounds of national security. The collegium has, so far, not shown any inclination to approve the contentious clauses in the MoP.