The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre to submit a list of names reiterated by the collegium for judicial appointments and sought an explanation for the delay in processing it, Bar and Bench reported.

Under the collegium system, the five most senior judges of the Supreme Court, including the chief justice, decide on the appointments and transfers of judges to the top court and the High Courts. These recommendations must be approved by the Union government.

The bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, and consisting Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, was hearing two petitions including one by the Jharkhand government seeking contempt of court action against the Union government for delaying its approval on the collegium’s recommendation of appointing Justice MS Ramachandra Rao as the chief justice of the Jharkhand High Court.

The collegium had recommended the appointment of Rao on July 11, but it is still pending.

The other petition, filed by lawyer Harsh Vibhore Singal, seeks the establishment of fixed timelines for the Centre to process and approve resolutions of the collegium.

On Friday, lawyer Prashant Bhushan said that several names including that of lawyer Saurabh Kirpal were awaiting clearance from the Centre. “There are so many instances when the Centre sits on collegium recommendations for years,” Bhushan said.

Kirpal’s appointment as a judge of the Delhi High Court was recommended in 2017.

Chandrachud asked Attorney General R Venkataramani to “make a list of the names reiterated and why it is pending and at what level it is pending”.

Veteran lawyer Kapil Sibal, who appeared for the Jharkhand government, said that the appointment of BR Sarangi as the chief justice of the Jharkhand High Court had not been cleared for six months earlier. Sarangi was recommended for the post in December and was appointed in July.

In response, the attorney general contended that there were reasons for the delay in clearing the names recommended by the collegium. “There are several reasons why such names are pending and we have no hesitation...it is very easy to come to court and say all of this…” he said.

The Jharkhand government’s plea argued that the delay had hurt the administration of justice.

The appointment of judges has become a point of contention between the collegium and the Centre in recent years.

It took the Centre nearly two years to appoint Advocate Somasekhar Sundaresan as a judge of the Bombay High Court in November, after he was first recommended by the Supreme Court collegium in February 2022.

The Centre had raised objections to the fact that Sundaresan had expressed his view on matters pending before the court on social media, but the collegium stood its ground.

Also read: