Even as the Central government on Friday assured that it will adhere to the timelines for the appointment of judges to the higher judiciary, the Supreme Court said that it was incumbent on the government to act on the collegium recommendation, without keeping them on hold and resorting to pick and choose.

“It cannot be kept on hold, without sending it back with comments,” the court said, adding that the “Delay in returning a recommendation (not finding favour with the government) with comments and not making appointment of reiterated names is a matter of grave concern.”

The strong observation from the top court came as Attorney General R. Venkataramani told the court that out of 104 recommendations for the appointment of judges to the high courts and the Supreme Court pending with the government as of now, 44 will be processed by Saturday itself.

Telling that government that appointment of the judges to the higher judiciary on the recommendation of the top court collegium is the law and it has to be adhered to, a bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Abhay S Oka further said that if the government wants to bring a better system for the appointment of judges, parliament can enact a law.

Justice Kaul said, “We are not saying that for the appointment of judges this (collegium) is a perfect system, but the one you will bring too will not be perfect.”

Having pulled up the government for sitting over the recommendation of the top court collegium and not processing them, Justice Kaul in poser asked, “Are we creating an atmosphere where some of the meritorious lawyers are hesitant to give their consent to be a judge.”

They (meritorious lawyers) have conveyed their concerns over the long delays by the government in processing the collegium recommendations marring them professionally.

Justice Kaul referred to two instances of the meritorious lawyers expressing their reluctance in switching over to the bench citing delays adversely impacting them professionally.

Referring to the contributions of a distinguished judge, Justice V.R. Krishana Iyer to the Indian judiciary and who was a minister in the government of the Communist Party of India headed by chief minister EM S. Namboodiripad, Justice Kaul said that all shades of opinion should be reflected in the Supreme Court and it cannot be on pick and choose based on the assessment of judgments whether they are aligned with the government or not.

Giving a four weeks’ time to Attorney General Venkataramani to interact with the government to get all the pending recommendations processed and cleared, the court posted the matter for further hearing on February 3.

The court’s observation came in the course of the hearing of a plea questioning the delay by the government in processing the top court collegium’s recommendations for the appointment of judges to the High Courts and the Supreme Court.