New Delhi, Nov 20: Indian government on Thursday declined to come on board with the Supreme Court in drafting a new procedure to appoint judges after the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) was quashed, following which the court gave its go-ahead to the existing Collegium to make fresh appointments.

In the last nine months, no new appointments of judges have been made in high courts or in the apex court owing to pendency of the matter.

In a day of dramatic events, the government first backtracked on submitting a draft procedure to the Constitution Bench on a new mechanism for judges’ appointments.

The day-long hearing ended with the Bench stating that the existing Collegium would continue to appoint judges without waiting for its final order.

The hearing began with Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi telling the Bench that the government was not agreeable to preparing and submitting a draft memorandum of procedure (MoP) to the Bench for its vetting.

“It is not possible for the government to devise a draft (MoP) for judicial discussion. It is an unnecessary burden on this court. There is no procedure of draft MoP in the Constitution. We cannot issue it,” he said.

The AG said the Bench would have to issue a judicial directive to the government for preparing an MoP, which is anyway an executive function done in consultation with the Chief Justice of India.