The Supreme Court on Wednesday termed “a matter of great concern” the manner in which the Centre was delaying the appointment of judges to high courts by not responding to collegium recommendations.

“We need the update on pending names as on January 29. Suppose you have reservations and send back names to us, then we can reiterate. But if you don’t give comments for five months on collegium recommendations, it is a matter of great concern,” Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, one of the judges on the bench told attorney-general K.K. Venugopal during a hearing.

“Tell us what is your timeline to respond to these recommendations of judges’ appointments…. We need to put the house in order,” the bench, also having Chief Justice of India S.A. Bobde and Justice Surya Kant, told the government.

The CJI said the court would ask the high courts for details of vacancies so that suitable orders could be passed on both the judicial and the administrative side. He pointed out that 189 names were pending with the government for the past several months.

Justice Kaul noted that during the past five or six months the collegiums had cleared the names of nine judges, but six of them were still pending with the government.

The court said that if the government had any reservations, it could certainly send back the names for reconsideration.

“The government has taken more than a year to respond. You say something is pending with the Intelligence Bureau and then some chief minister…. But we want to know your timeline” Justice Surya Kant observed.

The court was dealing with the plea of an NGO to expedite the process of filling up vacancies in the high courts.

The CJI told Venugopal that Justice Kaul had prepared a chart on the vacancies and the proposals pending with the government and the collegium.

CJI Bobde noted that whenever the collegium makes a recommendation, there is a spate of complaints questioning the names.