press trust of India
New Delhi: Differences between judiciary and government continued to be aired in the open with Chief Justice of India T S Thakur Saturday said there is shortage of judges in high courts and tribunals requiring government intervention, a view law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad strongly disagreed with.
The Chief Justice of India lashed out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government for their callous attitude towards the issue of filling vacancies for 500 posts of judges and providing adequate infrastructure.
‘‘Nearly 500 judges posts are vacant in the high courts. They should be working today, but they are not. At present, there are several vacant courtrooms in India but no judges available,’’ Justice Thakur said while addressing an All India Conference of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT).
Disagreeing with the CJI, the law minister said the government has made 120 appointments this year which was the second highest since 1990. The highest number of appointments of 121 were made in 2013, Prasad said.
‘‘We disagree with him (CJI). This year we have made 120 appointments. The second highest of 121 is of 2013. Since 1990 there have been 80 appointments. 5,000 vacancies are there in the lower judiciary in which the government of India has no role to play. That is something only for the judiciary to take care.’’
‘‘As far as infrastructure is concerned, that is a continuous process. Where the larger issue of appointment is concerned, there is a Supreme Court decision of making the memorandum of procedure (MoP) more transparent, objective, reasonable, fair and the government stand is pending for over three months and we are yet to hear from the Supreme Court,” he said.
The CJI said ‘‘manpower deficit was also present in the tribunals which also faced the problem of lack of infrastructure leading to pendency of cases for five to seven years, apart from making apex court judges averse to heading such quasi-judicial bodies.
‘‘State of affairs in the tribunals is giving me the impression that you (tribunals) are no better. You are suffering from the same kind of deficit, manpower deficit. You cannot set up a tribunal, you cannot set up a bench at so many places because there are no members.’’ PNN
