The Hindu : Front Page : Apex court collegium puts its foot down

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 19, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

Apex court collegium puts its foot down

J. Venkatesan

Refuses to reconsider elevation of 3 judges

New Delhi: Asserting the judiciary’s primacy over the executive in the appointment of judges, the Supreme Court collegium, headed by the Chief Justice of India K.G. Balakrishnan, on Tuesday refused to reconsider its decision on elevation of three High Court Chief Justices as apex court judges.

The collegium reiterated its earlier recommendation on the elevation of the Chief Justice of the Madras High Court A.K. Ganguly, the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court R.M. Lodha and the Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court H.L. Dattu and sent back the file to the Union Law Ministry for being sent to President Pratibha Patil.

The recommendations were sent to the Law Ministry in the middle of October for forwarding the names to the President through the Prime Minister’s Office.

According to highly placed sources in the Ministry, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressed his reservations about the elevation of these three judges on the ground that seniority had been overlooked and certain States were not represented in the apex court.

He wanted the collegium to reconsider its decision and the file was returned to the office of the Chief Justice of India.

The sources said the government was of the view that three seniormost High Court Chief Justices, A.P. Shah of the Delhi High Court, A.K. Patnaik of the Madhya Pradesh High Court and V.K. Gupta of Uttarakhand High Court had been ignored and judges junior to them were promoted to the Supreme Court.

The collegium returned the file to the government sticking to its recommendations. Time and again the collegium has pointed out that appointment of a High Court Chief Justice as a Supreme Court judge could not be construed as automatic promotion based on seniority. Several factors were taken into consideration and seniority was only one of them.

No option for govt.

Sources said that in the light of the collegium’s position, the government would have no option but to forward the three names to the President for appointment as apex court judges. At present there are five vacancies in the apex court which has a total strength of 26 judges, including the Chief Justice.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page