SC Collegium's Reasons For Rejecting HC Judges' Appointment If Published, Will Be Detrimental To Those Whose Names Were Recommended: Delhi HC

The Delhi High Court recently observed that publication of reasons by the Supreme Court Collegium for rejection of the recommendations made by the High Court Collegium for elevation of Judges to the High Court will be detrimental to the interests and standing of people whose names have been recommended by the High Courts.

A division bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan said that the collegium deliberates and decides on the basis of information which is private to the individual being considered.

“Such information, if made public, will have the effect of stifling the appointment process,” the court said.

The bench made the observations while dismissing the appeal made by CA Rakesh Kumar Gupta against a single judge order rejecting his plea seeking details about the reason for recommendation for High Court judges appointment remitted by Collegium of the Supreme Court of India to the High Court Collegium.

The single judge had dismissed the plea with Rs. 25,000 costs.

The bench said that the Single Judge correctly noted that the High Court cannot sit in appeal over the subjective satisfaction of the Supreme Court collegium.

“Having perused the impugned judgment, this Court finds that the learned Single Judge has correctly noted that vacancies in High Court have no bearing on the pendency of cases in the District Courts. In fact, by the end of this year, the actual strength of the District judiciary is virtually going to be at par with its sanctioned strength. Consequently, the learned Single Judge has rightly held that the appellant has no locus to file the writ petition,” the court said.

It added that the Supreme Court has repeatedly drawn a distinction between eligibility and suitability of a person to be appointed as a Judge of the High Court.

“Eligibility is an objective factor which is determined by applying the parameters or qualifications specified in Article 217(2), whereas, fitness and suitability of a person is evaluated in the consultative process,” the court said.

It added that Kumar's argument regarding “rejection” by the Supreme Court was misconceived as he failed to understand that appointment of a Judge to the High Court or Supreme Court is an integrated, consultative and non-adversarial process, which cannot be challenged in a court of law except on the ground of want of consultation with the named constitutional functionaries or lack of any condition of eligibility in the case of an appointment, or of a transfer being made without the recommendation of the Chief Justice of India.

The single judge had said that the writ petition was a complete waste of judicial time and Kumar had no locus to maintain it.

Kumar sought details about the norms or qualification considered for High Court Judge appointment by Supreme Court Collegium. He also sought publishing of monthly data related to pending, disposal of recommendation by the SC Collegium.

It was his case that last year, the rejection by the Apex Court of the recommendations made by the High Courts regarding elevation of judges to the High Courts was about 35.29%, whereas the same was only 4.38% in 2021.

Title: CA RAKESH KUMAR GUPTA v. SUPREME COURT OF INDIA THROUGH SECRETARY GENERAL

Citation: 2024 LiveLaw (Del) 741

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