Just a week before his retirement, Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna on Monday made public details of the Supreme Court Collegium’s recommendations for appointments as High Court judges.
These details — for all recommendations between November 9, 2022 and May 5 this year — include caste, gender, and whether the candidate is related to any sitting or retired High Court or Supreme Court judge.
The data published on the Supreme Court website shows that of 406 candidates recommended by the SC Collegium to the government, 221 have been approved by the government, while the rest are either pending or have been rejected.
The data shows that only 34 of the 406 were women. Only eight candidates belonged to Scheduled Castes; seven belonged to Scheduled Tribes; 32 candidates were from Other Backward Classes; 7 were from Backward/Most Backward Classes and 14 were related to either sitting or retired judges.
The decision to disclose additional data on appointments comes just a month after all 31 SC judges resolved to publicly declare their assets.
CJI Khanna retires on May 14.
The SC also put out documents detailing the appointment process, a version of the Memorandum of Procedure (MoP) adopted to govern judicial appointments.
“The Supreme Court of India has placed the complete process of appointments to the High Courts and Supreme Court including the role assigned to the High Court Collegium, the role and inputs received from the State Governments, Government of India, and consideration by the Supreme Court Collegium, on its website for knowledge and awareness of the public,” a statement from the SC said.
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The disclosure comes at a time when the SC and the process of appointments are under scrutiny, with questions of probity being raised after allegations that unaccounted cash was found at the residence of High Court judge Yashwant Varma after a fire on March 14. An in-house judicial inquiry submitted its report on May 5.
