Supreme Court collegium meets but discusses no names

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde met on Thursday but discussed no names for appointment as judges of the SC or high courts. The collegium, also comprising CJI-designate N V Ramana and Justices R F Nariman, U U Lalit and A M Khanwilkar, met in the afternoon but discussed no names.
TOI had reported on Thursday that as per convention, no CJI schedules a collegium meeting after the President appoints his successor.President Ram Nath Kovind had appointed Justice Ramana as the next CJI with effect from April 24.
CJI Bobde retires on April 23. CJI Bobde, in his tenure of one year and five months, could not recommend a single name to the government for appointment as SC judge.
The oldest vacancy in the SC, caused by CJI Ranjan Gogoi’s retirement on November 17, 2019, has not yet been filled. Since then, four more judges — Justices Deepak Gupta, R Banumathi, Arun Mishra and Indu Malhotra — have retired, taking the total vacancies to five.
He will be the only CJI to retire without appointing a judge to the SC. A precedent of this nature was escaped by CJI H L Dattu, who during his tenure had made only one appointment to the SC in Justice Amitava Roy.