Supreme Court: In an unusual turn of events, the 3-judge bench of Dipak Misra, CJ and Dr. AK Sikri and Amitava Roy, JJ dismissed the petition that questioned the delay in finalising the Memoranda of Procedure for the appointment of judges.
Earlier on 27.10.2017, the bench of AK Goel and UU Lalit, JJ had noticed that more than one year and ten months have already gone by since the Court order the finalisation of Memoranda of Procedure and hence, there should be no further delay in finalization of MoP in larger public interest. It had, hence, issued notice to Centre and listed the matter on 14.11.2017. The 3-judge bench, however, called for an early hearing and said:
“there was no necessity or need to proceed with the same, more so, in view of the Constitution Bench judgments in Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association vs. Union of India (2016) 5 SCC 1”
Recalling the 2-judge bench order dated 27.10.2017, the bench said:
“there is no justification or warrant to keep the special leave petitions pending and the same are, accordingly, disposed of.”
The 2-judge bench had, in it’s order, said:
“No doubt, the process is to be initiated by the Collegium and proposal is expected to be so initiated before accrual of the vacancies so as to ensure that appointments take place by the time vacancies arise and that the arrangement of acting Chief Justices does not exceed one month, as stipulated in para 5 of the Memorandum of Procedure for Appointment (MOP) currently in force, in pursuance of judgment of this Court in Supreme Court Advocates-on-Record Association v. Union of India, (1993) 4 SCC 441.”
[R.P. Luthra v. Union of India, 2017 SCC OnLine SC 1295, order dated 08.11.2017]
