The Centre does not want to elevate Gauahati high Court Chief Justice A S Bopppana to the  Supreme Court even as the Supreme Court Collegium recommended his name along with Jharkhand High Court chief justice Aniruddha Bose.

Both the names were returned by the centre. The SupremeCourt Collegium is a block of the senior most judges who recommends name forthe appointment of judges and generally law ministry by custom adhere to it .But this time the recommendations were returned.

 On April 12, theSupreme Court Collegiums had recommended the two names for elevation to theSupreme Court.

It is  however notclear about the reason for the decision to return the recommendations. It islearnt that the principle of seniority was not applied and that regionalrepresentation formed the basis for the decision, sources have said.

According to the media report, Justice Bose stood at serialnumber 12 and Justice Bopanna at 36 in the combined seniority of High Courtjudges on all-India basis. Justice Bose is from Calcutta High Court and JusticeBopanna from the Karnataka High Court.

Presently the Supreme Court has a working strength of 27.Its sanctioned strength is 31 judges, including the chief justice.