The Supreme Court of India, which is going through a difficult period in its tenure, has a new chief justice in the form of Justice NV Ramana, who took over this week.

In an attempt to prevent his promotion, YS Jagan Moham Reddy, the Chief Minister of his home state of Andhra Pradesh, penned a letter to outgoing Chief Justice SA Bobde blaming him of partisanship.

Justice Bobde was relieved of the allegations after an internal investigation, the findings of which were not disclosed. Justice Ramana takes over as Chief Justice of India at a time when case backlogs in the higher courts are growing. One main cause of this is the vast number of vacant judicial positions.

In February, Parliament was notified that over 400 judgeships in 25 High Courts were empty.

According to the Centre, the Supreme Court Collegium has been rusty in selecting candidates to occupy seats. According to the Supreme Court, the Centre has been reluctant to respond to suggestions.

The Attorney General notified the Supreme Court last week that the Centre will make an informed decision on a package of Collegium guidelines that have been with it for more than six months within three months.

Why does it take the government nine months to decide anything as important as this?

Following the retirement of Justice Ranjan Gogoi and three others, four of the 34 judges’ positions in the Supreme Court fell unfilled last year. The Collegium made no immediate recommendations to fill these openings.

Neither the Centre nor the Collegium is acting with the urgency that is demanded of them. Any administrative problems, such as court proceedings, have gone unaddressed for a long time. Few new questions have also arisen recently.

Between 1981 and 1998, the Supreme Court asserted primacy in the appointment and removal of judges from both the Executive by three decisions. In the meantime, India gained dubious honor and being the only nation in which judges had the final say in appointing judges.

The Collegium, which consists of the Supreme Court's senior-most judges, makes decisions in this respect. In terms of court rulings, they are obligatory on the Centre. It is a court-created extra-constitutional entity. Several distinguished jurists have expressed concerns about the Collegium system.

A national discussion on the topic resulted in broad consensus by both jurists and lawmakers on the formation of a national judicial committee to offer suggestions on judicial selection, transfer, and promotion. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi came into power, he introduced a bill through Parliament to put this proposal into action. It was dismissed by the Supreme Court. The Modi system later compelled the Collegium to withdraw certain names it had suggested by calling attention to negative information concerning the individuals' antecedents. In 2018, four of the Supreme Court's most senior justices convened a news conference to inform the public that the institution is in chaos.

Speaking on behalf of the party, Justice J. Chelameswar opposed how then-Court of Appeal Chief Justice Dipak Misra assigned cases to benches for trial.

“The Supreme Court's administration is not in balance, and many incidents that are less than optimal have occurred in the last few months,” he added.

When Justice Ranjan Gogoi, who was present at the press conference, was named CJI, he, too, drew criticism on the subject of case assignment. He was later charged with sexual assault by a court employee. Several questions remained unanswered as a result of the circumstances around the accusation and how he cleared his reputation. A prominent Gogoi court decision gave Hindus the place of the destroyed mosque in Ayodhya to build a Ram temple and Muslims an alternative location to construct a new mosque.

Many people welcomed it, hoping that it would bring an end to a communal feud. Ayodhya-style conflicts over two mosques raised in courts in Mathura and Varanasi last week said it could be a dying hope. As lawsuits questioning the constitutional legitimacy of laws that changed the status of Jammu and Kashmir were presented, Justice Gogoi dismissed them, stating that he decided to give the government some time.

Justice Bobde, his replacement, will quit without hearing the J&K petitions. In an extreme reaction to two critical tweets, Justice Bobde arrested senior lawyer Prashant Bhushan on violation of court allegations. Justice Ramana will serve as CJI for just 16 months. It’s too short a time to fix any of the Judiciary's challenges without even starting it.