Judges' appointment: Supreme Court Collegium flags delay in clearing names

New Delhi, March 22

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Expressing concern over the Centre withholding or overlooking the candidates recommended for appointment as judges, the Supreme Court Collegium has reiterated the name of senior advocate Harpreet Singh Brar for appointment as a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

At a meeting, the three-member Collegium comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice SK Kaul and Justice KM Joseph stated that the Department of Justice had returned its earlier recommendation dated July 25, 2022, for elevation of Brar after flagging certain issues. The Collegium then sought fresh inputs about Brar from the High Court Collegium, which reiterated his name on February 24 after the CJI wrote to the Chief Justice of the High Court on February 16 on the issue. “Upon careful evaluation of the matters which have been noted by the Department of Justice, the High Court Collegium, which has been constituted afresh with a new member, arrived at the unanimous view that there was no reason to take a view different from the one taken earlier,” the Supreme Court Collegium said in a resolution uploaded on its website on Wednesday.

Noting that the senior counsel had wide-ranging experience of practice, the SC Collegium reiterated Brar’s name and said the proposal should be processed at the earliest.

In a separate resolution, it also reiterated the name of advocate R John Sathyan for appointment as a judge of the Madras High Court, saying a notification should be issued at the earliest. Sathyan’s name was recommended on February 16, 2022. The SC Collegium had reiterated the recommendation on January 17 this year, brushing aside the objections of the Intelligence Bureau to his social media posts, including the one critical of PM Narendra Modi. It recommended the names of four district judges—R Sakthivel, P Dhanabal, Chinnasamy Kumarappan, and K Rajasekar—for appointment as judges of the Madras High Court.