“Don’t act selectively on collegium recommendations" on appointments and transfers of judges:Chief Justice of India

Justice Bhushan R. Gavai, 52nd Chief Justice of India told Union government “Don’t act selectively on collegium recommendations" on appointments and transfer  of judges after presiding over his first collegium meeting on May 26, 2025. The collegium includes Justices Surya Kant, Vikram Nath, J.K. Maheshwari, and B.V. Nagarathna besides Justice Gavai.  

A Supreme Court's bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul had said, “selective appointments undermined the element of workable trust essential for the relationship between the judiciary and the executive.” It “sends a wrong signal.” Justice Kaul had made these observations prior to his retirement in December 2023. 

In the aftermath of the judgement declaring the National Democratic Alliance government enacted the National Judicial Appointments Commission (NJAC) Act, 2014 to be unconstitutional in 2015, the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) guides the appointment and transfer of judges in constitution. But Union Government has not been complying with it although independence of judiciary is part of the basic structure of the Constitution of India. 

In January 2025, a bench of the Supreme Court permitted the High Courts to appoint retired judges as ad hoc judges under Article 224A of the Constitution to alleviate the mounting backlog. As ofb July 1, 2025, the High Courts have 371 vacancies out of a sanctioned strength of 1,122. The present working strength stands at 751 judges. Over 63 lakh pending cases in the High Courts, according to the National Judicial Data Grid.

The Supreme Court Collegium, headed by Chief Justice Gavai, has recommended the appointment of 39 individuals as judges across nine High Courts. The recommendations were made on July 1 and 2 after an in-person interactions with candidates from judicial officers and practising advocates. 

Notably, the collegium has recommended names of two advocates Ajit Kumar, and Praveen Kumar as judges of the Patna High Court. The High Court has a sanctioned strength of total 53 judges, which includes 40 permanent, and 13 additional judges. At present, the High Court is functioning with 36 permanent judges only. 

The Supreme Court Collegium had initially recommended five names for appointment as judges in February 2025. However, the Union government cleared only three names. The appointment of the other two recommended advocates, Ritesh Kumar and Anshul Raj, is still pending.

The question is: who should be held accountable for delay in appointment of 17 judges in the Patna High Court including these two names. In this regard, the silence of advocates' association, lawyers association and bar association is deafening. 

Why is the the Collegium issuing only statements listing the names of recommended candidates and their High Courts, sans details about timeline and process? Why has it discontinued the practice of regularly publishing detailed minutes of Collegium meetings and basic information regarding the dates on which High Courts send their recommendations and the timeline of the Collegium’s deliberations on Supreme Court's website.