NEW DELHI: The Centre has sought reconsideration of Supreme Court collegium’s recommendation made six months ago for appointment of Calcutta high court ’s Justice Aniruddha Bose as Chief Justice of Delhi high court .The move could further muddy the relationship between the executive and the judiciary, already strained by Centre’s stout resistance to the appointment of Uttarakhand HC Chief Justice K M Joseph as a Supreme Court judge. The collegium on May 11 had in principle decided to reiterate Justice Joseph’s recommendation.Law ministry sources said the government had no reservations on Justice Bose but wanted the collegium to reconsider on two counts — one, Delhi HC is a premier HC which handles important and complicated questions of law, and two, the court has always been headed by a seasoned judge, who is already a chief justice in another HC.“We have no particular choice in mind for Delhi HC. We have only pointed to the primacy enjoyed by Delhi HC and requested the collegium to reconsider keeping these two parameters in mind,” a ministry source said.Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal has been heading Delhi HC since April last year, which will go down as one of the longest tenures in an acting capacity.Justice Joseph’s name has not yet been sent back to the Centre as the collegium deferred a decision on July 16 and thereafter, has been deliberating on other names to fill vacancies in the SC, which has 22 judges against a sanctioned strength of 31, including the CJI. The collegium has held a few meetings over the past two weeks.The collegium had sent both recommendations — appointment of Justice Joseph as an SC judge and Justice Bose as Delhi HC Chief Justice— to the Centre for the first time on January 10. The Centre objected to Justice Joseph’s appointment on the ground that he was far too junior in the all-India seniority list of judges and he would supersede many senior judges.The Centre’s return of the recommendation had created tension within the collegium. Two days later, on January 12, four seniormost judges and collegium members led by Justice Jasti Chelameswar held an unprecedented press conference complaining against the manner of CJI Dipak Misra ’s functioning.In its January 10 recommendation to the Centre, the collegium comprising CJI Misra and Justices J Chelameswar (since retired) and Ranjan Gogoi had said, “Office of the chief justice of Delhi HC has been lying vacant since long.Therefore, appointment to that office is required to be made. Justice Aniruddha Bose is a senior puisne judge of Calcutta HC.Having regard to all relevant factors, the collegium finds Justice Aniruddha Bose suitable in all respects for being appointed as chief justice of Delhi HC. The collegium resolves to recommend accordingly.”