Supreme Court collegium puts foot down on elevation of Justice Joseph

New Delhi: The Supreme Court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has reiterated its decision on elevation of Chief Justice of Uttarakhand high court K.M. Joseph as a judge of the apex court.

The collegium, that includes Justices Ranjan Gogoi, Madan Lokur, Kurian Joseph and A.K. Sikri, at its meeting on July 16 rejected the Centre’s request to reconsider the recommendation for appointment of Justice Joseph. It said nothing adverse regarding suitability of Justice K.M. Koseph had been pointed out by the Centre.

Under the memorandum of procedure on appointment of judges, once the proposal of the collegium reiterates the appointment of a judge, the government is bound to accept it.

Taking note of the fact that there are nine vacancies in the Supreme Court, the collegium also recommended the elevation of the Chief Justices of Madras and Orissa high courts, Indira Banerjee and Vineet Sharan, respectively, as judges of the apex court.

If the recommendation is accepted, for the first time in the history of the Supreme Court there will be three women judges serving in the top court at the same time. At present, there are two women judges, Justice R. Banumathi and Justice Indu Malhotra.

The collegium also recommended the names of Justices Rajendra Menon, Gita Mittal, V.K. Tahilramani, Hrishikesh Roy, K.S. Jhaveri, Aniruddha Bose and M.R. Shah for chief justices of high courts of Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Madras, Kerala, Orissa, Jharkhand and Patna.

At its meeting last week on May 11, the collegium decided in principle to reiterate the recommendation in respect of Justice Joseph but to take a final call n Friday. It was adjourned only on the ground that some more time was needed to finalise names of other judges so that the remaining seven vacancies could be filled up.

The collegium’s resolution, which were uploaded in the Supreme Court website on Friday, said it had carefully considered the observations made by the law and justice minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in his letters dated April 26 and April 30, addressed to the Chief Justice of India referring back the file for reconsideration of the recommendation made on January 10.

On April 26, the government had announced that it had cleared the elevation of advocate  Indu Malhotra to the Supreme Court.