The Centre on Friday informed the Supreme Court that the top court collegium recommendations for the appointment of five judges to the Supreme Court are expected to be cleared soon.
This was conveyed by Attorney General R Venkataramani to a bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Abhay S Oka as the bench expressed its displeasure over the Centre’s delay in clearing recommendations of the top court collegium.
The Attorney General conveyed this to the bench in the course of the hearing of a matter related to the Centre’s alleged delay in clearing names recommended by the Collegium for appointment as judges to the Supreme Court and high courts.
The bench posted the matter for further hearing on February 13.
Meanwhile, the AG sought time regarding the pending recommendations concerning the appointments of judges in the High Courts.
The Collegium on December 13 last year recommended five judges for elevation to the apex court — Rajasthan High Court Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal, Patna High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Karol, Manipur High Court Chief Justice PV Sanjay Kumar, Patna High Court judge Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Allahabad High Court judge Manoj Misra.
On January 31, the Supreme Court collegium recommended two more names for elevation as top court judges — Justice Rajesh Bindal, Chief Justice, Allahabad High Court and Justice Aravind Kumar, Chief Justice, High Court of Gujarat.
While recommending their names, the Collegium had said the names recommended by it on 13 December 2022 “shall have precedence over the two names recommended presently for appointment to the Supreme Court.”