Even as the Supreme Court Collegium repeated its decision to appoint five advocates as High Court judges and made both its reasons for doing so and the Centre’s objections public, The Deccan Era has learned that it is analysing the issues objectively in numerous other cases.
The Centre returned at least 19 names proposed by the Collegium on November 25, including 10 names that were pending after the Collegium reiterated them. Five of the ten names were for the Allahabad High Court, two were for the Calcutta High Court, two were for the Kerala High Court, and one was for the Karnataka High Court.
The Collegium reaffirmed its decision to nominate Nagendra Naik as judge of the Karnataka High Court for the third time on January 10. It has been learned that while one name from the Madras High Court has been returned to the High Court, the SC Collegium has requested additional information from the government and, in some cases, the High Court as well.
Since 2019, sources have told The Deccan Era that the Supreme Court Collegium has also been accepting “positive reconsiderations” from the government, in which the government has requested reconsideration of a name that was initiated by the High Court Collegium but rejected by the Supreme Court Collegium.
According to reports, the SC Collegium reversed its prior decision on two names and recommended them as High Court justices for the first time on January 10.
According to the Third Judges case of 1998, which serves as the basis for the Collegium system of appointing judges, the administration may request reconsideration of a Collegium-recommended name. The verdict states that the government is obligated to nominate the individual if the Collegium affirms its decision following reconsideration. The decision does not contemplate a scenario in which the government may request reconsideration of a name rejected by the Collegium.
“It was determined that consultee judges had divergent viewpoints but that the names were suitable otherwise. “The Collegium has reconsidered it,” a government official confirmed, confirming the new procedure.
