Supreme Court Takes Note Of 'Positive Development' In Centre Clearing Some Collegium Proposals, Repeats Concerns About Pending Files

The Supreme Court on Friday (October 20) took note of some "positive developments" in judicial appointments, as the Centre has notified a slew of appointments and transfers of High Court judges over the last two weeks.

At the same time, the Court reiterated its concerns about the segregation of names and the pendency of certain collegium proposals. 

A bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sudhanshu Dhulia, and Manoj Misra was hearing a petition filed by the Advocates Association of Bengaluru seeking contempt action against the Union Ministry of Law and Justice for not adhering to the timeline set by the Court in a 2021 judgment for clearing collegium proposals on November 7, 2023. A writ petition filed by the non-profit Centre for Public Interest Litigation raising the issue of delay in judicial appointments was also listed along with the contempt petition.

It may be recalled that on the last occasion, it was revealed that almost all of the 70 recommendations made by various High court collegiums had been forwarded by the Centre after the court's rebuke. 

During the hearing today, Justice Kaul told Additional Solicitor General of India Balbir Singh that when the Centre splits up a single collegium resolution to pick some names and omit others, it will disrupt the seniority.

"When you appoint someone and don't appoint someone else- the whole concept of seniority gets disturbed."

He further added that the issue also arose in some transfer proposals, where some judges were transferred upon the recommendations and some were not. He said–

"Appointments are consultative process. Transfers are for already who are judges...there is wisdom of five senior judges in these transfers..."

ASG Balbir Singh, appearing for the Union in the matter sought additional time to apprise the bench with the progress made by the Union in clearing the recommendations of the collegiums. Justice Kaul added– 

"Some of them- I don't think there are serious issues for the government to not consider them... Suppose there are four names, you notify three and hold back on one. The idea is that this shouldn't happen. Some people have accepted, some have withdrawn out of frustration. We have lost on a lot of good names. This reduces incentive for people to join the bench..."

At this juncture, Senior Advocate Dushyant Dave remarked that many young lawyers were no longer interested in being promoted to the bench due to inordinate delay in clearing of names by the Union. 

Noting that as the matter stood now, there were 5 reiterated names pending, 5 fresh names pending, and 11 transfers pending, Justice Kaul ordered–

"ASG assures that the matters are being sorted out. At his request, list on 7 November."

While concluding the matter, Justice Kaul also remarked–

"Some of the names cleared recently have been appointed within a span of weeks - that's a positive development. I know in Delhi they notified - they cleared two week ago only. The current process is going well but we have to unstuck the stuck."

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