The Central government on Friday told the Supreme Court that it would clear the recommendations forwarded by the Supreme Court Collegium in December, 2022 regarding elevation of five High Court judges to the Apex Court within the next five days.
Appearing for the Union of India, Attorney General R. Venkataramani apprised the Bench of Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice A.S. Oka that warrants of appointments for these five judges would be issued very soon.
The Union government was also looking into the recommendations made for appointment of judges in different High Courts of the country, but needed more time for the same, added the AG.
The Apex Court directed AG Venkataramani to come back with specific inputs on Collegium recommendations regarding transfer of High Court judges and appointments of Chief Justices at different High Courts in the next 10 days.
Regarding the proposals kept pending by the government despite repeated reiterations by the Collegium, the Bench warned the government against forcing it to take judicial and administrative action against the Union of India and make things “uncomfortable”.
The top court of the country observed that it was not affected by the public barbs aimed at it by government functionaries beyond a particular stage. It also added that the important issue was to get the justice administration working well and filling up of judicial vacancies.
The Supreme Court Collegium had proposed elevation of Justice Pankaj Mithal, Chief Justice of Rajasthan High Court; Justice Sanjay Karol, Chief Justice of Patna High Court; Justice P.V. Sanjay Kumar, Chief Justice of Manipur High Court; Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah, Judge of Patna High Court, and Justice Manoj Misra, Judge of Allahabad High Court, on December 13 last year.
A contempt petition was filed by the Advocates Association Bengaluru in 2021 against the Centre for not approving 11 names reiterated by the Supreme Court Collegium.
The plea contended that the conduct of the Union government was in gross violation of the directions issued in the PLR Projects Ltd vs Mahanadi Coalfields Pvt Ltd case, wherein the Supreme Court had directed that names reiterated by the Collegium must be cleared by the Centre within 3-4 weeks.