The News Freedom
Chandigarh, November 7
“It is “troublesome” that the Centre is selectively picking, choosing and appointing judges whose names were recommended by the collegium for appointment to the higher judiciary” the Supreme Court on Tuesday. “Selectively picking, choosing and appointing is the troublesome aspect,” the Supreme Court said adding that “Don’t do this”. The Centre cannot block the appointment of judges just because names cleared by it were not approved by the Collegium, the Supreme Court observed.
A bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Sudhanshu Dhulia, underscored the vital significance of preserving the inter-se seniority among judicial appointments and emphasized the importance of honoring the Collegium’s decisions.
“We have put to the Attorney General that this is again a matter of concern as emphasized on numerous occasion that if some appointments are made and some are not, the inter-se seniority is disturbed,” the Supreme Court said. The bench said that when the Collegium does not accept a name for judgeship, that should be the end of it.
“Suppose some name is cleared by you and suppose Collegium does not clear it. Then that should be the end of the chapter. Somebody expects to be a judge and we do not accept that, then that should be the end. This has happened in more than one case. This cannot be the reason other names are halted. Else it becomes like a ping pong ball.”the Supreme Court said.