NEW DELHI, Oct 29: Government today slammed Congress for criticising it over vacancies in judiciary, saying it was like “devil quoting scriptures” as the opposition party had the record of damaging and trying to erode the sanctity of judiciary while being in power.
Information and Broadcasting Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said the Government has the highest regard for the judiciary and is committed to address the shortage of judges in High Courts.
In a statement here, he said the process of appointment of judges would continue even while the new Memorandum of Protocol for such appointments is under consideration.
“The Government, in collaboration with the Apex Court, would sincerely endeavor for an early conclusion of the new MoP in the larger interest of transparency and objectivity,” Naidu said.
“The Government of India has the highest regard for the Judiciary of the country which is an important pillar of democracy and shares the concern of the Supreme Court over the huge pendency of cases at different levels of Judiciary for different reasons,” he said.
The minister said the Government is committed to address the shortage of judges in High Courts.
While hitting out at Congress for attacking it over the vacancies, Naidu said the Modi Government has approved over 200 new posts over the last two years as against only 20 posts of judges created during 2009-14 when UPA was in power.
“Despite the sincere efforts of the Government to increase the strength of judges in High Courts and to address public concern over transparency and objectivity in the selection of judges in the higher judiciary, the Congress party has the audacity to criticize the Government of seeking to undermine judiciary, further to the observations of the Supreme Court on the vacancies yesterday,” he said.
“It is a recorded history that the Congress party has done the singular damage to democracy and one of its important pillar of Judiciary during its long rule.
“It badly bruised democracy through brazen violation of fundamental rights of citizens by clamping emergency and clearly stated in the Supreme Court that the citizen had no remedy even if shot at by a police officer.
“It further sought to erode the sanctity of Judiciary by inventing concepts like committed judiciary, superseding seniority in promotion of judges etc,” Naidu said.
He said Congress party “with such a notorious record of treating democracy and judiciary with contempt, now criticizing the Government of seeking to undermining judiciary, is like the devil quoting scriptures.”
Naidu recalled that following “widely expressed concern over lack of transparency and objectivity” in the selection of judges of High Courts and the Supreme Court, Parliament had unanimously passed an Act for setting up of the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC).
The Apex Court, however, in its wisdom struck down this legislation last year after hearings during April-December, he noted.
“I would like to remind the Congress, in case it has forgotten, that it had supported the NJAC proposal,” the I&B Minister said.
He said that while striking down the NJAC proposal, the five-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court had clearly emphasized the need to improve the collegium system of appointing judges to ensure transparency and objectivity in the selection.
As per the direction of the Apex Court, the Government is working on a revised Memorandum of Protocol in this regard and the same is under the consideration of the Supreme Court for over the last two months, Naidu said.
“Congress party needs to know that a large number of judges have been appointed to the High Courts during the last two years and this was acknowledged by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India during the hearing yesterday,” he said.
He said the working strength of judges in High Courts remained at almost the same level during the last few years.
“If the nine-month period of hearing on NJAC proposal, during when no appointments were made, is excluded, the rate of appointment of judges by this Government has increased by 63 per cent, which is no mean achievement,” Naidu said.
“Vacancies remained more or less the same despite increase in posts and no appointment during hearing on NJAC,” he said.
“Congress party should realize and acknowledge the same after perusing the following information regarding vacant posts of High Court Judges,” he said while giving a breakup of vacancies per year from 2008 till 2016.
According to the statistics furnished by him, there were 280 vacancies out of 877 posts in 2008, 276 of 886 posts in 2009, 265 of 895 posts in 2010, 286 of 895 posts in 2011, 273 of 895 posts in 2012, 282 of 895 posts in 2013 and 267 of 906 posts in 2014.
In 2015, 78 new posts were created and in 2016, 138 posts were created, Naidu said.
Hence, the vacancies were 268 out of 984 posts in 2015 and 286 out of 1044 posts in 2016, he said, adding the total strength increased “substantially” in last two years.
“Congress party has not only bequeathed a battered economy to the NDA Government but also a legacy of huge pendency of cases and vacancies in higher judiciary. NDA Government is committed to undo this legacy with the aid and advice of the Hon’ble Supreme Court,” the minister said.
“During such time, I would urge upon the Congress party to stop quoting scriptures as it has no moral right to do so,” he added.
“The Government of India assures the nation that it has the highest consideration and respect for judiciary,” he said. (PTI)
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