New judges: SC notice to Centre over delay in MoP

New Delhi : Almost two years after a Constitution Bench asked the government to redraft the memorandum of procedure (MoP) for appointment of judges to the higher judiciary, the Supreme Court today issued notice to Attorney General KK Venugopal on a petition highlighting the inordinate delay that has adversely affected judicial appointments.
Acting on a petition filed by advocate RP Luthra, a Bench of Justices AK Goel and UU Lalit appointed senior advocate KV Vishwanathan as amicus curiae to assist it and posted the matter for further hearing on November 14. “We also find substance in the submission that the MoP must provide for a mechanism so that appointments of regular Chief Justices of high courts are not unduly delayed,” the Bench noted.
Luthra has challenged the May 1, 2017, order of the Delhi High Court that rejected his petition questioning the appointments made to various high courts on the ground that the MoP had not been finalised. Agreeing with the High Court’s decision to reject his petition against judicial appointments, the Bench noted that the issue of delay in drafting the MoP to make it transparent remained to be resolved. “…we need to consider the prayer that there should be no further delay in finalisation of MoP in larger public interest. Even though no time limit was fixed by this court for finalisation of the MoP, the issue cannot linger on for an indefinite period,” the Bench said, underlining that more than one year and 10 months had already passed since December 16, 2015, when a Constitution Bench directed the government to redraft the MoP to make it transparent.