New Delhi: The Bar Council of India (BCI) on Wednesday protested the Supreme Court collegium’s recommendation to elevate Justice Sanjeev Khanna of the Delhi High Court to the apex court by superseding several other judges and termed the decision as “whimsical and arbitrary”.
The BCI, which is an apex body of lawyers, said the decision of the five-member collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi was viewed by the Bar and the common man as “unjust and improper”.
Before the BCI made a statement protesting the decision of the collegium, Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul of the Supreme Court also wrote a note to the CJI and other members of the collegium — Justices A.K. Sikri, S.A. Bobde, N.V. Ramana and Arun Mishra — for ignoring the seniority of Chief Justices of the High Courts of Rajasthan and Delhi, Pradeep Nandrajog and Rajendra Menon, respectively.
Sources said Justice Kaul was of the view that wrong signal would go out if the two Chief Justices, who are up in the seniority list than Justice Khanna, would be left out for elevation as apex court judges.
Justice Khanna stands at Sl.No. 33 in the combined seniority of high court judges on all-India basis.
Justice Kailash Gambhir, former Delhi High Court judge, had also written a letter to President Ram Nath Kovind on January 14 expressing concern over bypassing several judges seniority by the collegium.
BCI Chairman Manan Kumar Mishra, in a statement, said the supersession of several senior Judges and Chief Justices of the country cannot be tolerated by the people and the revocation of the earlier decision recommending the names of Justices Pradeep Nandrajog and Rajendra Menon is viewed as “whimsical and arbitrary”.
“They are men of integrity and judicial competence; nobody can raise a finger against these judges on any ground. The decision of January 10, 2019 will certainly lead to humiliation and demoralisation of such judges and also of several other deserving senior judges and Chief Justices of HCs,” Mishra said. The recent trend adopted by the collegium has completely “eroded” the faith of the Bar.
