The Narendra Modi government was rapped by the Supreme Court on Friday for bypassing it on the appointment of new chairman of the monitoring authority which is looking into the investigations of 22 encounter killings between 2002 to 2006 in Gujarat, saying it was "complicating" the matter.

The apex court disapproved the manner in which the Gujarat government appointed former Bombay High Court Chief Justice K R Vayas in place of former apex court judge, Justice M B Shah, who quit as the head of the panel on personal and health grounds

"We should also have been told about the proposal for the appointment of new chairman," a bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai said.

"We shall not change the basic structure as to who will be the monitoring person," the bench said in an apparent reference to giving the slot to a former High Court judge instead of a former apex court judge.

Senior advocate Ranjit Kumar and Additional Advocate General of Gujarat, Tushar Mehta told the bench that the notification on appointment of Justice Vayas, former Chairman of Maharashtra Human Rights Commission, was issued yesterday as Justice Shah has refused to continue as chairman.

They said there was urgency on the appointment of new chairman as the apex court, by its January 25 order, had asked the monitoring authority to file its interim report in a time- bound manner.

However, the bench said that the appointment should have been made after consulting the court as it had passed the order.

"You (Gujarat government) have unnecessarily complicated the matter. You should have come to us. You should have waited," the bench observed.

"This concerns our order. You should have brought this fact to our notice," the bench said, adding, "there can be many considerations (for appointment) and some may be taken consciously or sub-consciously".