Reiterating its recommendation, the Supreme Court collegium on Thursday rejected Centre’s objection to the elevation of Jharkhand High Court chief justice Aniruddha Bose and Gauhati High Court chief justice AS Bopanna as judges of the apex court.

“Merit should be given predominant consideration,” the collegium said.

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“We have carefully considered the observations made by the Department of Justice while referring back to the Collegium.”

Amid disagreement over the two names, the apex court panel today recommended two more judges for the Supreme Court – Justice Bhushan Ramkrishna Gavai and Justice Surya Kant.

Justice Govai is a judge of the Bombay High Court and Justice Kant is the Chief Justice of the Himachal Pradesh High Court.

The five-judge Collegium, besides the CJI, also comprises Justices SA Bobde, NV Ramana, Arun Mishra and RF Nariman.

The Centre had disagreed with the Supreme Court Collegium’s recommendation to confirm the elevation of Justices Aniruddha Bose and AS Bopanna as it is learnt that the principle of seniority was not applied and that regional representation formed the basis for the decision.

A source familiar with the elevation process said Justice Bose stood at serial number 12 and Justice Bopanna at 36 in the combined seniority of High Court judges on the all-India basis. Justice Bose is from Calcutta High Court and Justice Bopanna from the Karnataka High Court.

However, the SC Collegium had thought over various factors including the seniority and merit along with the integrity of the candidate.