Justice Rohinton F. Nariman's retirement today from the Supreme Court has brought into focus the issue of rising vacancies in the apex court as also the continuing impasse in the collegium with regard to judicial appointments to the court.
The exit of Nariman, who was the second senior-most judge in the Supreme Court and a member of the collegium, brings down the number of judges in the apex court to 25 as against a sanctioned strength of 34. And with Justice Navin Sinha set to retire on August 19, the number of judges will fall further to 24, and the court will end up with 10 vacancies.
This brings into focus the inability of the Supreme Court collegium to get over its differences and recommend names for appointment as judges in the apex court. The collegium has for the last 22 months failed to recommend a single name to be appointed as a judge in the Supreme Court.
The last time an appointment was made to the Supreme Court was in September 2019 during the tenure of then Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi. The oldest vacancy existing today was created by Gogoi's retirement in November 2019.
The tenure of former Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde, who retired in April this year, did not see a single recommendation being made by the collegium for appointment as Supreme Court judge. It is learnt that the collegium was divided over recommending certain names, with a section of judges, understood to include Nariman, wanting the principle of seniority to be adhered to.
Karnataka High Court Chief Justice Abhay Oka and Tripura High Court Chief Justice Akil Kureshi are number one and two in the All India Seniority List of high court judges. A section of the collegium was for recommending these two names before other names could be taken up.
Bobde was learnt to be keen on recommending the name of Karnataka High Court judge Justice B.V. Nagarathna for elevation to the Supreme Court, which would have created the possibility of the country getting its first woman CJI. However, while there was no disagreement on the idea that the collegium should strive to pave way for the country getting its first woman CJI, a section of the collegium felt that a consensus had to be created on the names of Oka and Kureshi before other names were cleared.
Not a single name could be recommended for appointment as a Supreme Court judge during Bobde's 18-month tenure. He had just days before his retirement convened a meeting of the collegium as a desperate attempt to try and break the deadlock, but had failed. However, the move was not welcomed by a section of judges who felt that it went against norms and precedent.
With Nariman's retirement, the collegium's constitution also undergoes a change, with Justice Nageswara Rao replacing him in the apex panel of judges which comprises besides CJI N.V. Ramana, Justices U.U. Lalit, A.M. Khanwilkar and D.Y. Chandrachud.
