New Delhi (06.05.2025): The Supreme Court of India on 05.05.2025 decided to publish on its website the complete process of appointment of High Court and Supreme Court judges. This would include the role assigned to the High Court Collegium, the role and inputs received from the State and Central government, and consideration by the Supreme Court Collegium.
The SC has already started furnishing details regarding them on its website when it disclosed that only 14 of the 221 candidates recommended by the SC Collegium for appointment as High Courts judges over the past two and a half years are related to sitting or former judges of the Supreme Court or the High Courts. This is just 6.3 per cent of all the names approved.
Of the 14 candidates with relatives in the judiciary, the appointment of only 1 candidate, that of advocate Rohit Kapoor for the Punjab and Haryana High Court, remains to be cleared by the Central government. Of the 221 total candidates, 29 names are yet to get government approval.
The SC said that the decision has been taken for the knowledge and awareness of the public. “The proposals approved by the Supreme Court Collegium for appointments as High Court Judges during the period 9th November 2022 to 5th May 2025, including the names, High Court, source – whether from Service or Bar, date of recommendation by the Supreme Court Collegium, date of notification by Department of Justice, date of appointment, special category (SC/ST/OBC/Minority/Woman), and whether the candidate is related to any sitting or retired High Court/Supreme Court Judge, have also been uploaded on the Supreme Court website.”
The Apex Court has also made public the details about the candidates recommended for judgeships and whether their family members are or have been judges of the High Court or the Supreme Court in the past. It further said that the statement of assets of the Supreme Court judges will also be placed on the website soon.
