So uncertainty now prevails over the status of the recent deliberations of the Collegium. As per the resolution, since the judges’ body could not arrive at a consensus and in light of the fact that Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju sent a letter to CJI Lalit on October 7, 2022, requesting him to nominate his successor, all deliberations which were slated to be initiated at a meeting of the Collegium of September 30 would stand discharged.

CJI Lalit had sought to finalize four names by way of a letter dated September 30, which was circulated among the Collegium judges. Names of Justice Ravi Shankar Jha (Chief Justice of Punjab & Haryana High Court), Justice Sanjay Karol (Chief Justice of Patna High Court), Justice PV Sanjay Kumar (Chief Justice of Manipur High Court), and Senior Advocate KV Viswanathan were recommended for elevation in the letter.

The CJI had adopted this procedure of the 'letter route' because the Collegium meeting scheduled for September 30 could not be held as Justice Chandrachud was holding court till 9 PM. While Justices Kaul and Joseph agreed to the names proposed by CJI Lalit, Justices Chandrachud and Nazeer objected to the method of finalizing names via letter circulation.

The CJI addressed a second letter on October 2, but there was no response to the same. The Collegium statement said, "Thus, the proposal initiated by the CJI had concurrence from Hon’ble Mr. Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Hon’ble Mr. Justice K.M. Joseph. Hon’ble Dr. Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Hon’ble Mr. Justice S. Abdul Nazeer had objected to the process of selection and appointing judges by circulation."

The Collegium had unanimously agreed to elevate Bombay High Court Chief Justice Dipankar Datta to the apex court at a meeting held on September 26. There were ten more names under consideration but the Collegium wanted to examine more judgments rendered by those judges, so the meeting was deferred for September 30. But since that meeting could not take place, the CJI adopted the letter route.