SC pulls up Centre for stalling judges’ appointments, says it’s hurting judiciary

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court lashed out at the government on Friday for allegedly stalling high court judges’ appointment and threatened to pass orders to clear the “logjam”, potentially triggering the latest episode in a string of clashes between the executive and judiciary.

Chief Justice of India TS Thakur read out a list of 75 names sent to the Centre for appointment as HC judges since February but lamented that there had been no progress.

“The Centre is attempting to bring the judiciary to a grinding halt by not appointing high court judges,” Thakur told attorney general Mukul Rohatgi, who promised to get back on the status of the list by September 13.

The strongly worded comments came roughly four months after the CJI broke down and criticised successive governments for not increasing the number of judges to a number sufficient to deal with millions of pending cases.