Four women are judges in the Supreme Court against the total sanctioned strength of 34 judges and 83 women are judges in high courts against the sanctioned strength of 1,098 judges, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
The minister said the appointment of judges of the Supreme Court and high courts is made under Articles 124, 217 and 224 of the Constitution which do not provide for reservation for any caste or class of persons. "…we have been stressing time and again, and, personally, I have also been asking the Collegium … that while recommending names for appointment as judges, preference may be given to women and persons from backward classes, Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes," he said while replying to supplementary questions. Rijjiju said the government on its own has never deliberately held up any appointment process.
"The government has to take due diligence while appointing judges because while appointing judges, we have to ensure that he is fit to be a judge in the court. This is very important. And then, all the cases which come to us have to go through a process," he said.
The minister further said that some of the names are with the Collegium in the Supreme Court and some of the names are with the government at different stages of the process. "This is a well established process as per the Memorandum of Procedure. We don't make any delay on our part just because we don't want to make any kind of judgement on our own while appointing the judges, but only to look after the issue of appointing only qualified judges," he said.
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