Judges posting: Wilson rakes up delay in RS

Raising the issue during zero hour, he urged the Central government to finalise a Memorandum of Procedure for appointment of judges and to setup a time frame in the MoP for the appointment process. An alarming emergency prevails in the appointment of high court judges, he said.

Wilson said as many as 230 recommendations were pending with the Centre and the high courts in the nation continue to function in a situation of acute shortage of judges.

“Out of 1,079 sanctioned posts of high court judges in 25 high courts, there are 401 vacancies.  Nearly one-third of the sanctioned has been allowed to lie vacant and the casualty is the common man.  The time has come for Parliament to resolve the stand-off between the Executive and the Judiciary deadlock in the appointment of judges to various high courts within a time limit. 

Most of the high courts are functioning with only 50 per cent of sanctioned strength.  “Shockingly it has recently come to light that there are about 230 names recommended for appointment by the Collegium of Supreme Court, but the government is simply sitting over these recommendations without getting approval from the President for months for reasons best known to them,” Wilson added.