TIL Desk/National/New Delhi/ In yet another showdown between the judiciary and the executive, the Centre and the Supreme Court on Friday crossed swords over the issue of appointment of judges in the higher judiciary. The Centre today slammed the apex court Collegium for recommending fewer names to fill up huge vacancies in the various high courts of the country.
The apex court too also hit out at the Centre for keeping the names recommended by the Collegium pending. “Tell us, how many names (recommended by the Collegium) are pending with you,” a bench comprising Justices Madan B Lokur and Deepak Gupta asked Attorney General (AG) KK Venugopal.
When the AG replied by saying, “I will have to find out”, the apex court bench retorted “when it comes to the government, you say ‘we will find out'”. The bench made the strong remarks following a submission by Venugopal that though the court was dealing with a matter relating to the vacancy of judges in the high courts of Manipur, Meghalaya and Tripura, the fact was that the Collegium has been recommending only three names for high courts where the vacancy was for 40 judges.
