‘Very strange’: Prashant Bhushan on dropping pleas concerning delay in notifying Collegium recommendations from causelist

New Delhi: Advocate Prashant Bhushan on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that it was a “very strange” situation where a batch of pleas concerning the delay in appointment or transfer of judges in higher judiciary was deleted from the causelist.

Bhushan apprised a bench of Justices S.K. Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia that the matter was not listed for hearing despite a fixed date given in the previous order. He urged that an explanation must be called from the Registry over non-listing.

At this, Justice Kaul said: “I am sure that the Chief Justice (of India) must be aware of it … I have not deleted the matter or expressed unwillingness to take it. Some things are better left unsaid some times.”

In its previous order, the bench had directed that it will continue to hear on December 5 the issue of delay by the Union government in notifying Collegium recommendations.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had warned the Centre of “an unpalatable order” if it delays and continues to have the selective ‘pick and choose’ approach in notifying recommendations forwarded by the Collegium.

–IANS