New Delhi: With around 410 vacancies in 24 high courts across the country against the sanctioned strength of 1,079 but the government and higher judiciary seems to be at loggerheads over appointments blaming each other.

SC bench headed by justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul sought an answer from the government last week on whether appointments on which there is unanimity between the government and the SC collegium can be finalised in six weeks. The Centre was yet to receive recommendations for 221 vacancies, some of which were pending for a decade.

The court is not examining as to who is to be elevated and on what consideration but its wants all stakeholders are on the same page the appointments should go through in six months.

However, government officials are of the view that it was the judiciary that did not send proposals for the appointment of high court judges on time. Chhattisgarh HC has not forwarded recommendations to fill up vacancies that arose in 2011. In the Allahabad high court, recommendations for the posts that fell vacant in 2015 under the advocates’ category are yet to be made. Bombay, Delhi, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Punjab and Haryana high courts, too, have delayed proposals for unfilled vacancies under the lawyers’ category.

Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh, Calcutta, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan and Telangana high court have not finalised lists for posts, meant for trial court judges, which fell vacant over the last five years.