NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday said that the Centre was delaying the appointment of judges without accepting the recommendations of the collegium. The apex court stated that the Collegium had received some names from the Centre and had been asked to accept the names that had been rejected. The bench comprising Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Abhay S Oka lashed out at the Centre while considering the pleas filed by the Advocates Association of Bengaluru against the Centre delaying the collegium recommendations.

With the court toughening its stance, the central government said that it will announce its decision on 44 out of the 104 recommendations made by the Collegium for high courts by Saturday. Recommendations to the Rajasthan High Court will be approved soon.

The court also expressed concern about creating an environment where meritorious people are hesitant to give consent for their names for an appointment for a judge's post due to delay in clearing the name. The court also flagged the issue that the people have withdrawn a couple of names as their names have not been cleared for months.

The apex court pointed out that 22 names (for the appointment as judges) were returned by the Centre recently, and some of those names were earlier reiterated by the collegium. It further added that some names were reiterated by the collegium three times, despite which the Centre returned them.

The bench said: "Sending back reiterated names by the Centre is a matter of concern. The government might have apprehensions, but names cannot be kept on hold without sending us some comments in the fear that we will reiterate."

The bench said that the collegium will decide the future of these recommendations. The court will hear the matter again on February 3. Justice Kaul told Attorney General R Venkataramani that it was not acceptable for the collegium to delay the ten recommendations made for the transfer of judges.

Centre returned recommendations for appointment of judges in Kerala High Court
The Centre also returned the names of lawyers Aravind Kumar Babu and KA Sanjeetha, who were twice recommended by the collegium as judges in the Kerala High Court. The decision on the recommendation to transfer Kerala High Court Justice K Vinod Chandran as Chief Justice of Guwahati High Court is delayed.

Justice VR Krishna Iyer is a role model, says court

The court said that as judges they were doing their duty without political considerations. Justice Kaul pointed out that Justice VR Krishna Iyer is a role model for this. Krishna Iyer was associated with the Left even when he was a minister and a lawyer, Justice Kaul said.