Bengaluru Lawyers' Association Seek Meeting With CJI Over Govt Interference in Judicial Appointments

Bengaluru: The Advocates’ Association of Bengaluru plans to meet with the Chief Justice of India, the Union Law Minister and the Attorney General to address issues related to government interference in judicial appointments and the prolonged vacancies in the Karnataka High Court.

The decision to seek appointments comes close on the heels of the second-most senior judge of the Supreme Court Justice Chelameswar writing to the CJI Dipak Misra raising concerns about the Central government’s attempt to intervene in judicial appointments.

Last week, Justice Chelameswar wrote to his brother judges about the Union Law Ministry writing directly to the Karnataka Chief Justice about one judge’s appointment, Krishna Bhat.

The Ministry thus by-passed the protocol of either going ahead with the judge’s approved appointment or going through the Chief Justice of India to raise any questions on this.

The Advocates’ Association in Bengaluru, which backed Justice Chelameswar on the issue, has said that the separation of powers between the executive and the judiciary has diminished after this incident.

“The outburst by the four senior most judges of the Supreme Court, and now by Justice Chelameswar, discloses the frustration in the institution due to the blatant interference of the political executive in the functioning of the constitutional courts in this country. The time has come for all persons concerned with the justice dispensation system to join hands, cutting across party lines to counter this challenge,” said president of the association AP Ranganatha.

Ranganatha said the Centre has kept pending a large number of judges’ appointments over the last one year.

Recently, the appointment of five judges was cleared to the Karnataka High Court, but even after the clearance, one appointment – that of a district judge Krishna Bhat – has become controversial after the Union Law Ministry’s letter to the High Court CJ to conduct a second enquiry about some allegations against Bhat.

“Even before these five judges’ appointments were cleared, two other appointments were cleared last year. These were of Nawaz and Narendra Prasad – both of them who were to be elevated from the Bar (advocates who had got appointed as judges). But that is still pending even now, no explanations given,” Ranganath told News18, pointing out that these judges, if appointed, would have been senior to the current five appointments and it is now up to the Bar to rise up to fight this interference by the Centre.

The non-appointment of the two judges despite being recommended by the Supreme Court is "a glaring pointer as to how the Independence of judiciary is being trampled upon by the present political executive at the Centre. The situation is graver than what was witnessed during the period of Emergency," Ranganatha felt.

The Karnataka High Court did not even have a Chief Justice between October and February, when Justice Jayant Patel, who was next-in-line to be CJ was abruptly transferred and thus resigned.

By February, 60 per cent of the court halls were empty, and the cases piling on the other judges because of the huge vacancy in the judiciary. The Advocates’ Association had even held a protest outside the High Court to put pressure on the Centre to clear up pending appointments as litigants were suffering,

“There are days when each judge’s cause-list runs to nearly 120-130 cases in a day. They are not able to hear our cases, we get calls from clients on why the enormous delays in getting their cases heard. It has become so difficult to work here,” said Ranganatha.

Even with the five appointments that have now been cleared, there are 32 court halls out of 62 that will remain empty – that’s half the judiciary vacant. The Supreme Court collegium has raised this issue with the Centre over the past two years now about the pendency of appointments that is severely affecting justice-delivery.

While the Association felt it is now for the Bar to rise and fight the interference,