Underlining that nepotism is being practiced in judicial appointments, the government has highlighted the relationships of candidates recommended by the Allahabad High Court (HC) to sitting and retired judges of the upper judiciary, The Times Of India has reported.

At least 11 out of 33 advocates recommended by the Allahabad HC for judgeship collegium were related to sitting or retired judges of HCs or the Supreme Court (SC), the Centre said in its report. Appointments to HC and SC are made based on final recommendations to the government by the SC collegium consisting of the Chief Justice of India (CJI) and four senior-most SC judges.

By making references to relationships of the 11 recommended candidates, the government has made a case for providing a level playing field to competent other candidates. A similar list filled with kith and kin of Allahabad HC was presented to the then CJI TS Thakur in 2016. The CJI had dropped 11 names and recommended only 19 candidates from a list of 30 candidates for judgeship.

The report also says complaints of nepotism had reached the Prime Minister’s Office in April 2018. Further, it added that the representation of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Castes, women and minorities in the list was negligible.