NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court collegium recently returned all 15 names of advocates recommended by the Patna high court collegium last year for elevation as judges of the HC.
These are in addition to half a dozen recommendations from among district judges which, too, have not been accepted, sources said, reports Pradeep Thakur. It has rarely happened that the SC collegium has disagreed with all the names recommended by an HC. According to sources, the SC collegium has not recorded reasons for the decision.
The Patna HC has 30 posts of judges vacant against a sanctioned strength of 53. After these recommendations are sent to the Centre and the SC by an HC collegium, the law ministry runs an independent background verification through the Intelligence Bureau.
It writes to the state government and the governor for their opinion and carries out detailed checks for eligibilitycriteria. There have been allegations of caste playing a role in the recommendations and that backward communities were ignored. A writ petition was also filed in Patna HC alleging favouring of certain castes.
Though the HC rejected the petition, the Supreme Court, the PMO and lRead More – Source
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