The Supreme Court on Friday said that it will have to take out the collegium recommendations lying in cold storage with the Center for the appointment of judges.

The bench of Justice S.K. Kaul, Sudhanshu Dhulia and Manoj Mishra said that five repeated names, five new names and 11 files related to transfer were still pending with the Central government.

The bench remarked that the recent notifications issued by the Center taking expeditious action on the recommendations of the Collegium are a positive development and took note of the submission made by the Center that the cases are being resolved.

Additional Solicitor General Balbir Singh, appearing for the Central Government, asked for an extension of two-three weeks. Accepting the request of the law officer, the Supreme Court posted the matter for further hearing in the second week of November 2023.

However, it expressed its concern that notifying select names distorts the order of seniority contained in the collegium's recommendation and results in meritorious lawyers often being sidelined.

The Supreme Court had said that it would hear the issue of 70 pending recommendations of the collegium at regular intervals for the next two months. Following pressure from the apex court, the Union Law Ministry had sent a large number of pending recommendations from high courts to the Supreme Court Collegium. The Center had also cleared various files related to appointment and transfer of judges in the higher judiciary.

In the last hearing, the Supreme Court had said that if the Center delays notifying the recommendations made by the collegium, then the deemed appointment of judges cannot take place. It had said that it cannot pass directions in the nature of mandamus to the President to sign warrants of appointment or transfer of judges to the higher judiciary.