Segregation of judges names troublesome: Supreme Court [Read Order]

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday objected to segregation of names recommended by the Collegium for appointment as judges as it affected the seniority and dissuaded the meritorious candidates to join the bench.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Sudhanshu Dhulia and Manoj Misra said it is troublesome when appointment process is split between some of the names recommended for judgeship by the apex court Collegium being appointed and some not.

The Centre led by Additional Solicitor General Balbir Singh sought two weeks’ time to take decision on pending appointment and transfer of judges in high courts.

Taking up a matter related to delay in appointment of judges filed by Advocates Association, Bengaluru and others, the bench noted that five names reiterated by Collegium, five fresh names recommended for judgeship and transfer of 11 high court judges are pending with the Centre.

"We appreciate what has been done (recent notifications) but more push is necessary," the bench said.

Senior advocate Dushyant Dave, representing a petitioner, said the government’s counsel tells the court that do not interfere in transfers at all and in transfer they pick and choose.

“That is troublesome and the other issue troublesome is, where the appointment process is split between some being appointed and some not,” the bench said.

Dave cited case of advocate R John Sathyam recommended for appointment as a judge of a high court, which has not been cleared by Centre so far.

In January this year, the Supreme Court Collegium had reiterated its February 16, 2022 recommendation for appointing Sathyam as a judge of the Madras High Court, discarding the objections of the intelligence bureau (IB) to his social media posts including the one critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Voicing concern on segregation, the bench pointed out that some people are accepted and some people out of frustration withdraw their candidature from judges’ appointment process, “we have lost good people and I keep saying it is a challenge to make people come this side (on the bench) and it becomes a greater challenge to make people come this side when this happens”.

Dave said a lot of people don’t participate in the judges’ appointment process because of these reasons.

He said appointment of judges should be made timely and time period should be fixed.

The bench said the delay in appointment of judges cannot be 10 months. Dave said some appointments have been cleared in 24 hours.

The bench said the positive development is that some of the names recommended by the Collegium for judgeship have been appointed by Centre in two weeks.

The court fixed the matter for further hearing on November 7.

[Read Order]