Supreme Court Collegium met but no name finalised on appointment of judges to top court

The Supreme Court Collegium headed by incumbent Chief Justice of India S A Bobde met here on Thursday but could not finalise any names for the appointment of judges in the top court.

Of the sanctioned strength of 34 judges, the Supreme Court is presently working with 29 judges with five vacancies.

With Thursday's development, Justice Bobde would perhaps become the only Chief Justice of India who could not make any recommendation for the elevation of judges to the Supreme Court. After the Centre's notification for the appointment of Justice N V Ramana as the next CJI, the possibility of Justice Bobde making a recommendation to the top court seemed bleak.

Justice Bobde is set to demit office on April 23. As part of a convention, the CJI usually stopped recommending names for the appointment of judges a month before their retirement.

The top court sources said the Collegium of top five judges briefly met but no decision was taken on deliberations related to elevation of several names, including Tripura High Court chief justice Akhil Kureshi and also Karnataka High Court's senior judge Justice B V Nagarathna, to the Supreme Court.

The Collegium comprised Justices N V Ramana, R F Nariman, U U Lalit and A M Khanwilkar.

Justice Ramana attended the meeting despite the ill-health, they said.