NEW DELHI: The Centre's insistence on merit being the sole criterion for appointment as judges will be tested once again with the Patna high court recommending relatives of a Union minister and a former SC judge for appointment.

Sources in the government confirmed that the six names recommended by the Patna HC might warrant closer scrutiny also to verify the dominance of a particular caste.

Last month, the government had expressed reservations about half of the names from a list of 126 candidates recommended by several HC collegiums for judgeship. The objections conveyed to the SC collegium ranged from failure of the advocates to meet the minimum income requirement to issues regarding probity and competence.

The observations were made on the basis of rigorous background check by the Intelligence Bureau as well as assessment of the candidates' credentials. Sources said the law ministry has set up a mechanism to evaluate each recommendation made by high court collegiums on the scale of merit and integrity, review of cited judgments, reputation of the lawyer in the legal fraternity, both personal and professional, and whether his income meets the threshold of Rs 7 lakh per annum in the preceding five years set for the purpose.

On August 1, TOI had reported a red flag of nepotism raised by the government in picks for Allahabad HC judgeship . Of the 33 lawyers recommended by the collegium, the government's own IB verification and background checks revealed that close to a dozen happened to be relatives of sitting and retired judges of the SC and HC. The search also brought out preponderance of upper caste men at the cost of SC/STs, OBCs, minorities and women.

