NEW DELHI: The Centre has asked the Supreme Court collegium to reconsider 20 names for appointment as high court judges, including that of senior advocate Saurabh Kirpal who, if approved, could become India’s first openly gay judge.
The Delhi HC collegium in October 2017 had recommended Kirpal, son of former Chief Justice of India
B N Kirpal, as HC judge. The SC collegium deferred the deliberations thrice and the then CJI S A Bobde had asked government to send more information on Kirpal. In November 2021, the collegium headed by former CJI N V Ramana decided in Kirpal’s favour. In a media interview, Kirpal had recently said that the reason for his name being kept hanging was his sexual orientation.
People familiar with the appointments said the government had expressed strong reservations about the recommendations while sending the file back. Out of the 20 names, 11 were fresh, nine others had been reiterated.
Amidst anguish expressed by the SC on Monday over delay in government approving names, the Centre on Tuesday cleared the appointment of two additional judges to the Bombay HC advocates Santosh Govindrao Chapalgaonkar and Milind Manohar Sathaye.
On Monday, a bench of justices S K Kaul and A S Oka had said, “Once the name is reiterated, that’s the end of the matter of the law as it stands. When recommendation is made, you cannot hold back the name without stating the reason.”