New Delhi: The Supreme Court collegium headed by the Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra on Friday decided to reiterate its earlier recommendation to elevate the Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court K.M. Joseph as a Judge of the apex court.
With the collegium likely to assert its authority in appointment of Judges to the Supreme Court, this is expected to result in a major confrontation with the Centre, which has expressed its reservations on Justice Joseph's appointment to the top court.
The resolution uploaded on the Supreme Court website says, the collegium met to consider reiteration of the recommendation dated 10th January, 2018 for elevation of Mr. Justice K.M. Joseph, Chief Justice, Uttarakhand High Court [Parent HC: Kerala] as Judge of the Supreme Court; to consider names of High Court Judges for elevation as Judges of the Supreme Court."
The Chief Justice and other members of the Collegium have, on principle, unanimously agreed that the recommendation for appointment of Joseph, as a Judge of the Supreme Court should be reiterated. However, the said reiteration should also be accompanied by the recommendation of the names of Chief Justices of High Courts for elevation as Judges of the Supreme Court, for which detailed discussion is required. In view of the aforesaid, the meeting stands deferred for being held at 4.15 p.m. on Wednesday, 16th May, 2018."
Highly placed sources said the meeting unanimously rejected the Centre's stand not to accept Justice Joseph's elevation and decided to send a detailed and point-by-point response to the Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad's letters dated April 26 and April 30 to the CJI. A wide range of issues relating to appointment of judges from High Courts, which did not have representation, was discussed, which remained inconclusive. It was also felt that the collegium should not give any 'veto' power to the government reject an appointment once the proposal had been thoroughly examined by the collegium.
The collegium also decided to send few more names taking into consideration the fact that there are seven vacancies to be filled in the apex court and five judges who are retiring shortly. Today's meeting comes in the wake of a letter written by Justice J. Chelameswar urging the CJI to take a call urgently to discuss the Justice Joseph issue.
