SC collegium rejects 17 names for Allahabad HC

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India TS Thakur, has rejected the candidature of 11 lawyers and at least half a dozen others from the state judicial service for judgeship in the Allahabad high court.

The HC collegium had recommended at least 44 names in April, about 30 of them practising lawyers, for appointment as judges of the country's largest high court.

In another similar case, the SC collegium, which met here last week, accepted only two of the 10 names recommended by the Karnataka high court for judgeship in the HC. The Supreme Court collegium sent back eight other recommendations for reconsideration of the Karnataka high court collegium on the ground that the court has a new chief justice and it is important to get a list vetted by him.

The final list of candidates selected for judgeship for the Allahabad HC includes two senior advocates from the SC - Dinesh Kumar Singh and CD Singh - and at least 17 other practising lawyers from Allahabad and Lucknow bars. Others who got the nod of the SC collegium are from the judicial service.

Many of the candidates rejected by the CJI-headed collegium for the Allahabad HC are learnt to be relatives of sitting and former judges and some related to politicians. The government, which carried out rigorous checks against each of the candidates before forwarding them to the SC collegium, had also received a number of complaints against some of them.

Last week, TOI had reported that the government had forwarded the recommendations of the Allahabad HC collegium to the apex court collegium having at least 44 names to be considered for judgeship. The government had accorded its own "remarks" and report of the Intelligence Bureau in respect of each candidates.

The source said that "adverse remarks" against the candidates endorsed by the HC collegium were the main reason for the SC collegium to turn down the choices of the HC, hamstrung by the huge number of vacancies on the bench.

The decision of SC collegium to tread cautiously coincides with the controversy caused by one of its members, justice J Chelameswar, who last week skipped the meeting of the body pleading for more transparency in its functioning. Though the names of judges for a high court are considered by the CJI and two senior most judges of the SC and Chelameswar was not part of the proceedings, the latter's demands have sharpened the the focus on the way collegium recruit judges of HCs and the SC.

The SC collegium and the government are also engaged in a tug of war over the finalisation of a memorandum of procedure for all appointments to the higher judiciary.