Giving in to the demands of lawyers in Tamil Nadu, Supreme Court today returned the entire list of 12 names recommended in December last year for appointment as judges of the Madras High Court.
"The apex court's collegium decided to return the list without reference to the allegations levelled by bar associations against some of the candidates in it.
"As the then Chief Justice of the Madras High Court Justice R K Agrawal has now been elevated as Judge of the apex court, a fresh collegium of the High Court has to take a call on the matter," Court sources said today.
Soon after the names became public late last year, court campuses plunged into chaos witnessing indefinite boycotts, agitations, siege to Chief Justice's chambers and PIL proceedings.
Even a flutter was created by Justice C S Karan during hearing of a PIL seeking to send back the list of 12 candidates on January 8 after he entered the jampacked court hall and told the court that the selection was not fair.
The indefinite boycott of courts was called off after an offer to return the name without processing them for appointment.
Reacting today's development, Tamil Nadu Advocates Association president S Prabakaran said "if competent people well-versed in law and legal procedures are chosen by the collegium, who would oppose them? We are interested in safeguarding the glory of the court."
Madras High Court Advocates Association president R C Paul Kanagaraj said secrecy in the selection procedure was to be blamed.
However, reacting to the development a senior jurist said Chief Justice Agrawal has already been transferred on elevation and the third judge in the High Court collegium Justice Chitra Venkataraman is slated to retire in April. The second judge Justice Satish K Agnihotri, who is at present acting Chief Justice, is new to the place. Hence the next list will not be ready before another six months, as the next Chief Justice needs to acclimatise himself to the local conditions and get to know advocates who are potential judge material".
Though the sanctioned strength of the Madras High court is 60, as on date it has only 46 judges. The Centre has already decided to add 15 more vacancies to the court, taking its sanctioned strength to 75.
