NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain a writ petition challenging the recommendations said to have been made by the Madras High Court collegium in November 2025, observing that the matter was not justiciable.
A two-judge bench of the apex court, headed by Chief Justice of India Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, said, “We do not believe that the issue sought to be raised is justiciable. Such issues are required to be considered by the competent authority on the administrative side. We, thus, do not deem it necessary to entertain this writ petition and accordingly dispose of it.”
The plea, filed by advocate A Prem Kumar, questioned the validity of the Madras HC collegium’s recommendations made on November 9, 2025, after Justice Banu was excluded from the collegium and replaced by Justice MS Ramesh.
Kumar contended that the HC collegium could not have presumed that Justice Banu had ceased to be a member when her transfer to the Kerala HC had not yet been operationalised. He argued that any recommendation made by a collegium so constituted would be constitutionally invalid. Senior advocate Rachana Srivastava and Advocate on Record Rangoli Seth appeared for Kumar.
The SC noted that there was no merit in the plea, adding that the issue fell within the administrative domain of the CJI and the collegium system.
In effect, the SC refused to examine the petitioner’s claim on the judicial side, reinforcing the principle that collegium recommendations are matters for the administrative discretion of the judiciary, rather than a subject for litigation.