The Supreme Court on Thursday said there was no bar on the collegium to go ahead with its work to appoint judges for the higher judiciary, which is plagued with large-scale vacancies.
The indication that it was not interfering with the functioning of the collegium system came while the apex court decided to give nine more days to elicit suggestions to improve the functioning of over two-decade-old controversial system of appointment to bring greater transparency in it.
“We want to indicate that we don’t want to delay. We don’t want to say anything to the collegium. We have not said anything to the collegium and we will not be saying anything. Whatever they want, they can do. If they do not want to proceed, let them not. It is their business. Let us not delay the proceedings,” a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice J S Khehar said.
Justice Khehar, who is fourth in seniority in the apex court, has kept himself away from the five-member collegium as he was heading the bench which on October 16 had quashed as unconstitutional the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) Act aimed at the replacing the collegium system of appointing judges by judges to the higher judiciary.
( Source – PTI )
