Amid intermittent face-offs between the government and the judiciary over certain choices for the Bench, the Supreme Court has said that the candidates cleared by the collegium and the Centre have to be appointed in six months.

“There may be an aspect as to whether the high court collegium and the Supreme Court collegium with inputs from consultee judges are on the same page or not an aspect which can be looked into by the judiciary. There may be cases where government sent back the names with the recommendation, an aspect emphasised before us.

“However, in cases where the recommendations of the high court collegium meet with the approval of the Supreme Court collegium and the government, at least their appointments must take place within six months. This is not to say that in other cases the process should not be completed within six months,” a Bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice KM Joseph said.

This has been happening intermittently since 1993 when the Supreme Court arrogated to itself real power to appoint judges of the top court and high courts through a judicial verdict that created collegium system that left very little role for the Executive in the process.