SC asks why names suggested for judgeship are pending with Centre

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Attorney General of India to give a tabulated chart of candidates whose names have been reiterated by the Supreme Court collegium for appointment as judges but not yet cleared by the Centre. A bench, headed by CJI DY Chandrachud, also asked the AG to furnish the reasons for not clearing those appointments.

The development took place during the resumed hearing of a public interest litigation (PIL) seeking directions to the Centre to clear the collegium resolutions in a time-bound manner. A contempt petition filed by the Jharkhand government against the Centre over the delay in appointing the chief justice of Jharkhand High Court was also listed on Friday.

Appearing virtually, Attorney General R Venkataramani sought a small adjournment citing health reasons. The bench agreed to adjourn the matter by a week.


Speaking for the bench, the CJI verbally told senior advocate Kapil Sibal (appearing for Jharkhand) that the appointments of the chief justices are likely to happen in the meantime. "Some appointments are in the pipeline, we expect those appointments to come shortly," the CJI verbally remarked.

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate Prashant Bhushan contended that several reiterated names are pending with the government and cited the example of senior advocate Saurabh Kirpal, whose appointment as Delhi HC judge was reiterated by the collegium in January 2023.

The CJI asked the AG to furnish a tabulated chart of cases which have been reiterated by the collegium. "And what's the difficulty in notifying those names. So please tell us, you can give us a chart of which are the names which have been reiterated by the collegium and why they are pending and at what level they are pending," the CJI verbally said.

Agreeing to do the same, the AG however expressed doubts about the extent to which SC can intervene in the matter. The CJI however reiterated its direction for the tabulated chart observing that the court will "deal with it".