SC pulls up Centre over delay in sending 70 HC collegium suggestions

Supreme Court, Collegium

The Supreme Court on September 26 questioned the Union government why the 70 names recommended by the collegiums across various high courts were not sent to the apex collegium yet.

A bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul asked Attorney General R Venkatramani to take instructions from the government and apprise the court on October 9. The judge observed that once the high court collegiums make their recommendations, the government must finish their background checks on their candidate within four months and forward it to the SC collegium. However, in this case, recommendations older than 10 months are still pending with the government.

Kaul further indicated that he will monitor the status of collegium appointments every 10 days. He is set to retire from the Supreme Court in December 2023.

As per the existing norms, once a high court collegium recommends a candidate for judgeship, it is forwarded to state government for opinion. The state forwards it to the Centre for inputs. The government conducts a series of background checks through intelligence agencies and sends it forward to the SC collegium with their inputs. The entire process is expected to be completed within a period of four months.

Appearing for the petitioners, senior advocate Arvind Datar told the court that when the Centre does not clear names for judgeship despite the SC collegium's reiteration, then it sends wrong signals. Kaul agreed to this and noted that many capable and deserving candidates have withdrawn their consent owing to delays on government's part.

The SC has warned the Centre a few times since November 2022 over the delay in processing collegium recommendations. In February 2023, the SC warned the Centre of unpalatable actions if the recommendations are not processed on time.

The controversy surrounding the collegium system of appointments came to a head when former law minister Kiren Rijiju wrote to the Chief Justice of India (CJI) suggesting that a representative of the government be included in the search-cum-evaluation committee. The controversy has since died down, however lawyers are still divided on the collegium system of appointment of judges.

The Supreme Court was hearing a plea pertaining to the delay in clearing names for elevation proposed by the collegium. As per Supreme Court’s judgment in PLR Projects versus Mahanadi Coal Fields (2019), once the collegium reiterates its recommendation for an appointment, the Union government cannot delay in clearing the person’s appointment. In 2015, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of the collegium system in the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) case.