The Collegium of the SC headed by Chief Justice of India S.A Bobde deliberated on the names of High Court judges for the Supreme Court on Wednesday. The CJI is chairing a five-member collegium meeting to decide the names to be recommended to the Center for the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court. However, no conclusions could be reached from this discussion. Therefore, the next meeting of the collegium will now take place on April 23, 2021.
Apart from the CJI at this meeting, the collegium has four other members, Justice NV Ramana, Justice RF Nariman, Justice U.U. Lalit and Justice AM Khanwilkar. Justice Bobde, who was sworn in as CJI on November 18, 2019, has more than a month and no recommendation for appointment of a judge in the apex court has been made so far during his tenure. The collegium has considered the names of three High Court Chief Justices and two women judges. He said that the next meeting of the collegium could be held in April. The apex court has the capacity to approve 34 judges and the vacancies have recently increased to five following the retirement of Justice Indu Malhotra.