25 Collegium recommendations for appointing HC judges pending with Government
Twenty-five names recommended by the Supreme Court Collegium for appointment as high court judges, largely across five high courts, are pending with the government, with the oldest one being of advocate Saurabh Kirpal, awaiting a final decision since October 2017.
The number of recommendations for appointment as high court judges pending with the central government have gone down considerably as compared to the recent past, sources aware of the process to appoint Supreme Court and high court judges told PTI. The 25 names are largely “scattered” across Delhi, Calcutta, Madras, Punjab and Haryana and Gujarat high courts, besides others. Son of former CJI B N Kirpal, Saurabh Kirpal’s name was sent by the Delhi High Court Collegium to the SC collegium in October 2017 for elevation as a high court judge. But the top court collegium is learnt to have deferred deliberations on his name three times. Finally, the collegium headed by then CJI N V Ramana took a decision in favour of Kirpal in November 2021. In November next year, the government had returned his file to the SC collegium for reconsideration. After the collegium reiterated its stand, the file has remained pending.
The sources cited above said the other names pending with the government are relatively new except two others besides that of Kirpal.
High court collegiums send their recommendations to appoint judicial officers and advocates as judges to the Department of Justice in the Union Law Ministry. The department adds details, including IB reports, about the recommendee or candidate before forwarding it to the Supreme Court collegium.
The collegium, in its wisdom, either recommends name for appointment as a High Court judge or returns the file to the High Court collegium. The latest combined sanctioned strength of the 25 High Courts is 1,122 judges. With 304 vacancies, the working strength stands at 818 judges. In percentage terms, 27 percent of high court posts are currently vacant.
