Centre, SC spar over N-E HC judges’ vacancies

Critical vacancies of judges in the three High Courts of the North-East saw sparks flying in the Capital between the Centre and the Supreme Court on Friday with both trading charges against each other for the delay.

The three High Courts of Manipur, Meghalaya, and Tripura are currently working with a strength of five judges against an approved strength of 13. A bench of Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta termed the situation "critical" on coming to know that Manipur HC is functioning with two judges, Meghalaya HC has one judge, and Tripura HC has two judges, due to which no division benches are there to hear appeals arising out of single judge orders.

In the past one week, the bench encountered two petitions filed by litigants seeking transfer of their case from Manipur HC to Gauhati HC. Faced with this grim reality, the bench on April 17 sought assistance of the Attorney General in the matter and expected a "statesman" approach from the Centre.

A-G KK Venugopal appeared before the bench and explained that the problem lies with the Collegium which recommended to the Centre only three names while the vacancy position existing in the region was huge. "The Collegium has to see the broad picture and recommend more names," Venugopal said. According to Centre, some High Courts are plagued with a vacancy figure averaging 40, for instance Allahabad HC (63 vacancies), Punjab and Haryana (35 vacancies) and Calcutta High Court (35 vacancies). The A-G submitted that despite such a critical situation, the Collegium recommends only three names and the Government is accused of being "tardy" in filing up judicial vacancies.

The response touched a raw nerve. Justice Lokur, who is the third seniormost judge after CJI in the apex court said, "How many names recommended (by Collegium) are pending with you (Centre)." When A-G sought time to get back with details, the bench took exception and added, "When it comes to Government, you say we will find out". The A-G remained firm that till Collegium does not make recommendations, there is hardly anything the Centre can do to remedy the situation.

The bench told the Centre that the Collegium had on April 19 recommended appointing Justice M Yaqoob Mir and Justice Ramalingam Sudhakar as the Chief Justices of the Meghalaya High Court and Manipur High Court respectively. These proposals have not yet been cleared. Venugopal said that orders to this effect will be issued shortly, much to the chagrin of the bench, which pointed out that almost a month was getting over.

During arguments, the A-G referred to the Collegium resolution of March 6 on making an additional judge Justice Songkhupchung Serto as a permanent judge. Although he belonged to Manipur HC, he was to function at Gauhati HC. Venugopal said it was "strange" that Justice Serto should continue to function from Gauhati HC when there is peak vacancy in Manipur HC.

The bench observed that such things are best left to the wisdom of the Collegium which may not desire to send him back to Manipur. The bench pointed out to the overall situation in North East with Meghalaya HC having one judge where sanctioned strength is 4, Tripura HC functioning at 50 per cent capacity with just two judges, and Manipur HC having three vacancies. The Court directed the Centre to file an affidavit in 10 days informing the steps taken to fill vacancies to the three High Courts.