Supreme Court raises concerns over Centre's practice of separating collegium recommendations

The Centre's strategy of separating the names of applicants suggested by the collegium for high court judge appointments has raised new concerns, according to the Supreme Court, which stated that this will eventually impact judges' seniority and discourage many deserving advocates from pursuing the legal profession.

A bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul also expressed concerns over the length of time the Union government took to move judges between high courts. While the process of appointing new judges is time-consuming and requires gathering information on a candidate's qualifications as well as other confidential input, there is no requirement for this kind of consultation when it comes to judge transfers.

The bench, which included Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Manoj Misra, was handling a number of petitions that contested the central government's tardiness in acting upon the collegium's recommendations regarding the appointment or transfer of judges. The petitioners also requested that the secretary of the law ministry be held in contempt.

The NDA government was chastised by the court last month for its persistent resistance to the appointment and transfer of seventy high court judges during the previous nine months, including the chief justice of the Manipur high court. After the Center cleared Justice Sidharth Mridul's name, he was sworn in as the Manipur High Court's chief justice on Friday.

During the last session, Justice Kaul—the second most senior member of the collegium after Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud—made it apparent that the top court would not tolerate any further delays by declaring, "Today I am quiet because the attorney-general (R. Venkataramani) says he wants one week's time." I might not be quiet the next time.

In response to the attorney general's request for a week to answer to the court's distress over the delay, the court had temporarily postponed the subject for a further hearing until October 9.

The top court acknowledged that there were concerns but noted that it was pleased that the government had cleared numerous candidates for appointment as judges following the previous hearing when the case was brought up for hearing on Friday.

Judge Kaul reminded additional solicitor general Balbir Singh, who was representing the Center, "In the appointment process when you appoint one and not the other, the very premise of seniority gets disturbed and the incentive to join the bench also is lost."

The names of certain aspiring judges have been withheld by the Center for the previous few years, while the names of others have been cleared, even though the collegium supplied the names all at once. Consequently, comparatively younger candidates were appointed judges before their more experienced counterparts.