These names have already been floated, though informally, by CJ Sharma in a recent meeting of the Judicial Council (JC).

The development comes at a time when the JC is preparing to recommend judges for the posts of chief judges at 16 appellate courts that are currently vacant. Earlier, it was considered that all appointments to the posts would take place as per the hierarchy from the appellate court judges.

The JC was supposed to begin the appointment by third week of this month.

The names for these posts are floated at a time when there is a growing concern for appointing judges from other related fields. According to sources familiar with the development, making such appointments would kill two birds with one stone as the move addresses the growing calls to fill the vacant posts while it also silences some aspirants of Supreme Court justices from those fields. “If the sitting registrar is appointed as chief judge of an appellate court, he or she will have no ground to make a pitch for apex court,” said a senior JC official.

Former apex court Registrar Ram Krishna Timilsina along with former Attorney General Drona Raj Regmi and Chairman of Administrative Court Kashi Raj Dahal are widely seen as possible candidates for apex court justices. If Registrar Shah along with Pathak and Sharma make it as head of the appellate courts, some names from the list of prospective justices could be omitted. The list of such prospective candidates includes Balram Bista, Deepak Karki, Tej Bahadur KC, Kedar Chalise, Meera Khadka, Purshotam Bhandari, Surendra Bir Basnyat, Sambhu Khadka, Dilli Raj Poudel, Sarada Ghimire, Posh Nath Sharma, Bam Kumar Shrestha, Dambar Shahi, Ishwor Khatiwada and Anand Mohan Bhattarai.

The Janakpur Appellate Court remains without its head after Chief Judge Durga Upreti retired on February 19. Likewise, Madhav Chalise, Hari Prasad Ghimire, Lokendra Mallik, Keshav Mainali and Jageshwor Subedi, chief judges of the appellate courts in Pokhara, Baglung, Tulsipur, Nepalgunj and Butwal respectively, have also retired from their respective jobs.

Meanwhile, the appellate courts in Hetauda and Dipayal are also without chiefs after their Chief Judges Baidya Nath Upadhyay and Dipak Raj Joshi were appointed to the apex court.

Similarly, the posts of chief judges at appellate courts in Mahendranagar, Rajbiraj, and Biratnagar, Ilam and Jumla districts are also vacant after their heads were either appointed to the apex court or resigned from their posts.