Chief Justice of India T. S. Thakur regretted early this year that the backlog of cases in the country cannot be cleared by 18,000 judges. High courts have 40% vacancies. The backlog piles up year after year. The crisis has arisen because of the conflict between the executive and the Judiciary undermining democracy. Now the Centre has returned 43 out of 77 names of High court Judge Candidates. So many names had never been returned in recent years. This attitude can only hurt India’s judicial system.
The Judiciary has primacy in appointing judges on the recommendations sent by a Collegium of judges headed by T.S Thakur. The setting up of a National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) had been struck down by the Apex Court last year. But the Court allowed the Centre to draw up an Memorandum Of Procedure (MOP) in consultation with the Chief Justice of India. The NJAC is to have judges and non-judges as members. It is because the executive wants a bigger role in the appointment of judges so that judicial activism is contained. The Judiciary is against it. The Centre is pushing for the HIAC but the collegium is yet to okay it. The sooner the conflict is resolved the better.