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Cleared names to be appointed as judges despite Presidential reference: govt

The Centre today assured the Supreme Court that all those names, which had been cleared by the Chief Justice of India for appointment of judges of the high courts and about whom there was no controversy, would be appointed in due course.

The pendency of the Presidential reference before a nine-judge Constitution bench would not come in the way of appointment of judges in the high courts where there was no difference of opinion between the CJI and the Centre, it was assured.

The assurance was given by Attorney-General Soli J Sorabjee during the preliminary hearing of a public interest petition by the Committee on Judicial Accountability.

The petition sought directions to the CJI and the Union government not to go ahead with the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the high courts on the basis of the CJI's recommendations in the absence of proper consultation and filing of the procedure laid down by the court in the case of the Supreme Court Advocates On Record Association versus the Union of India of 1993.

Earlier, senior counsel Shanti Bhushan, appearing for the petitioner, contended that the issues raised in the petition were of momentous importance. It would therefore be better that this petition and another one filed by Mohan Lal Gupta should either be tagged with the Presidential reference or heard together after the judgment in the Presidential reference. Following Gupta's petition, the court has already asked the Union government to file its counter affidavit within ten days.

''We cannot take note of this public interest petition because it is defective under the Supreme Court rules inasmuch as it does not disclose the source of information about the serious allegations made against the CJI,'' Justice S Saghir Ahmad, heading a division bench, said.

At this stage the attorney-general got up to suggest to the court that it would be better to await the verdict on the Presidential reference. After all, constitutional issues were involved in these petitions and they should be gone through with utmost restraint without hurling accusations at each other.

''Why to complicate issues, when the same issues are pending in the Presidential reference? Let this public interest petition be withdrawn,'' Justice Ahmad observed.

UNI

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