The Narendra Modi government has within 24 hours complied with the Supreme Court’s 10-day ultimatum to clear the elevation of five judges to the apex court after being warned of “unpalatable” orders.
A notification issued on Saturday evening through the Union ministry of law and justice said the President was pleased to appoint Justices Manoj Misra, Ahsanuddin Amanullah, P.V. Sanjay Kumar, Sanjay Karol and Pankaj Mithal to the Supreme Court.
The five judges are expected to be formally sworn in by Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud either on Monday or Tuesday morning.
Apart from the five judges for the Supreme Court, the Centre has notified the names of three acting chief justices for various high courts, besides one district judicial officer as judge of Manipur High Court.
The frenetic developments came a day after the Supreme Court expressed frustration at chronic delays in clearing judicial appointments by saying that “things have not been happening for years together”.
The recommendations for elevating the five judges had been pending since December 13 and the court had on Friday set a 10-day deadline to the government to clear the names.
The court also warned of “unpalatable” orders if files were not cleared relating to the transfer of 11 high court judges whose names have been reiterated by the collegium but stalled by the government.
The collegium had gone out of its way to re-emphasise the names of the five judges on January 31 while recommending two other judges — Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and his Gujarat counterpart Aravind Kumar — for elevation to the Supreme Court.
In an unusual statement, the collegium on January 31 had said that the five names recommended on December 13 must be cleared before those recommended on January 31.
The Supreme Court currently has 27 judges against a sanctioned strength of 34. If all the seven recommendations — the earlier five and Tuesday’s two — are endorsed, all the vacancies will be filled. With the five new judges being notified, the strength will rise to 32.
Apart from clearing the five names for the apex court, the Centre has notified the following appointments: Justice M.V. Muralidharan, Manipur High Court judge, as acting chief justice of that high court; Justice Chakradhar Singh, Patna High Court judge, as acting chief Justice of that high court; Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastav, the senior-most judge of Rajasthan High Court, as acting chief justice of that high court; and judicial officer Aribam Guneshwar Sharma as judge of Manipur High Court.
There has been constant friction between the Modi government and the judiciary after a five-judge constitution bench in October 2015 struck down as “unconstitutional” the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC), set up by the Centre to enable a say for the Union law minister in the appointment of judges, and reaffirmed the collegium system.
Senior advocate and former Union law minister Ashwani Kumar said on Saturday that the government’s decision “must put to rest apprehensions about an escalating conflict between the executive and the judiciary on the issue of judicial appointments”, but in the same breath batted for revisiting the collegium system of appointments.