The Supreme Court (SC) collegium withdrew the 12 names recommended for judgeship at the Madras high court, which had been opposed vehemently by a section of the HC’s bar and bench since December, reported the Times of India.

The collegium said that the withdrawal wasn’t based on an opinion of the merits of the names for selection, but was done keeping in mind the “unprecedented opposition” and the fact that the HC’s chief justice RK Agrawal had since been elevated to the SC and the new chief justice should be given a chance to consider names afresh.

The recommendation of the now withdrawn list had led to successive court boycotts by the bar, a petition by senior advocate R Gandhi against the recommendation and a controversial outburst by the Madras HC’s judge CS Karnan, among other things such as casteist slurs flying around at the HC’s bench.