Government sending back names reiterated by collegium; some names even dropped by Centre: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court on Thursday observed that the Central government sending back recommendations reiterated by the Collegium is in breach of its judicial directions. .A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Abhay S Oka and Vikram Nath in fact noted that as per the Attorney General for India, some of names sent back were dropped by the government altogether. "Sending back second time reiterated names is a breach of our earlier direction. AG submits in such a scenario earlier, such sent back names were actually dropped. We don't know why the names were dropped," the Court said."We don't know why the names were dropped," the bench remarked. .The court underscored that as per the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Second Judges' case, once names are reiterated by the collegium, they have to be confirmed. "It says reiterated names have to be appointed.. or you want to say that when you send back reiterated names then we should not look into it," remarked the top court. .The bench discussed instances where names had been sent back by the Centre as late as after two years. "Once the Collegium takes a view you have a right to object within a reasonable period of time.".The Court was hearing a petition related to the delay in approving names for elevation proposed by the Collegium.The Court had during an earlier hearing urged the Central government to process recommendations of the Collegium that have been pending for the last one-and-a-half years.The government had filed a response in the matter which the Supreme Court proceeded to examine on Thursday..During today's hearing, the court took objection to the government citing opinions of certain judges against the Collegium system, as an excuse to delay clearance to the recommendations made by the Collegium.It was said that said that the law regarding judicial appointments to the High Courts and the Supreme Court has been settled by the 2015 Constitution bench decision of the top court which upheld the Collegium system in the National Judicial Appointments Commission case (NJAC case).The bench underscored that while changes to MoP can be considered, that cannot be cited to delay judicial appointments recommended by the Collegium..Further, an unfavourable view was taken of the comments made by government functionaries about the Collegium system of appointing judges to the High Courts and the Supreme Court..[Read live account of hearing below]