Comments
Our Bureau The Centre has opened yet another war front with the judiciary by rejecting the Supreme Court collegium’s unanimous recommendation to elevate Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph as a judge in the Supreme Court.
Though the Centre approved another recommendation of the collegium, of appointing senior lawyer Indu Malhotra to the post, it said promoting may not be “appropriate” as 11 chief justices of various high courts are senior to him in the All India High Court Judges’ Seniority List.
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad sent a letter to Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra to reconsider the proposal by the collegium, saying that both President Ram Nath Kovind and Prime Minister Narendra Modi have approved the government’s position in this regard.
“The proposed appointment of .... Joseph as a judge of the Supreme Court at this stage does not appear to be appropriate,” he said, adding: “It would also not be fair and justified to other more senior, suitable and deserving Chief Justices.”
Prasad also said the Kerala High Court, the parent court of Joseph, has been adequately represented in the Supreme Court. “The High Courts, namely Calcutta, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand and some smaller High Courts, namely Sikkim, Manipur, Meghalaya, are not represented in the Supreme Court at present,” his letter said.
Segregation of proposal
“The government has been constrained to segregate the recommendation of the Supreme Court...such segregation of proposals has been done in many cases earlier, which include appointment of judges to various HCs and even the SC in the interest of expeditious action on appointments,” Prasad said.
In his six-page letter, the Law Minister also pointed out that in the All India High Court Judges’ Seniority List, Justice Joseph is placed at number 42. “There are presently 11 chief justices of various high courts who are senior to him...” he said. “It may be relevant to mention here that there is no representation of SCs/STs in the Supreme Court since long,” the letter added.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.