New Delhi, Dec. 9: The President has cleared the names of three judges whose elevation to the Supreme Court was stalled after the Prime Minister’s Office refused to endorse them saying their seniors had been bypassed.

On November 10, the PMO returned the names of H.L. Dattu, A.K. Ganguly and R.M. Lodha — Chief Justices of Kerala, Madras and Patna high courts, respectively — to the apex court collegium of its five senior-most judges.

The PMO drew its attention to the names of Delhi High Court Chief Justice A.P. Shah, Madhya Pradesh High Court Chief Justice A.K. Patnaik and Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice V.K. Gupta, whose claims for elevation had been ignored.

It asked the collegium, headed by the Chief Justice of India, to rethink. But the collegium stood its ground.

It argued that seniority was never the sole criterion for elevation of a judge to the Supreme Court, it was only one of the many conditions. Merit, judicial conduct and performance were some of the others.

Rules say the government can only suggest that the collegium reconsider the names. If it comes back with the same set of names, the government has to clear it.

On October 18, the collegium had recommended that Ganguly, Lodha and Dattu be elevated.

But the PMO sent the names back for reconsideration, asking why the tradition of going by seniority had been ignored.