With the collegium yet to recommend names of judges for elevation after staging a comeback last week, the President today used his powers under Constitution to appoint an acting Chief Justice for the Gauhati High Court.
As acting Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court Justice Karanam Sreedhar Rao is retiring tomorrow, Justice Tinlianthang Vaiphei, senior-most judge of that high court, has been asked to perform the duties of the office of the Chief Justice with effect from October 21, a Law Ministry statement said here.
This is perhaps the first appointment in the higher judiciary after the Supreme Court struck down the National Judicial Appointments Commission and a related Constitutional Amendment Act which sought to scrap the collegium system. The apex court made it clear that the collegium system will continue.
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The government also approved a recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium, made before the NJAC Act came into force on April 13, to re-appointment an additional judge in the Bombay High Court.
According to Law Ministry officials, Article 223 of the Constitution states that when the office of the Chief Justice of a high court is vacant or when any such Chief Justice is, by reason of absence or otherwise, unable to perform the duties of his office, these shall be performed by one of the other judges of the court as the President may appoint for the purpose.
Government had used this provision recently to appoint acting chief justices in some high courts.
With no system in place between April 13 and October 16 to elevate judges as chief justices of high courts, the high courts of Gauhati, Gujarat, Karnataka, Patna, Punjab and Haryana, Rajasthan and the Andhra Pradesh and Telangana high court are at present headed by acting chief justices.
The NJAC Act was notified on April 13, but it was declared as unconstitutional by the apex court on October 16.
It is learnt that the Law Ministry has sent files of 21 additional judges to the collegium whose terms are coming to an end by October 30 for its immediate consideration.
The additional judges, whose two-year terms are coming to an end, are from the high courts of Andhra Pradesh/Telangana, Calcutta and Karnataka, a senior government functionary said.
