The Supreme Court Collegium on Friday sent back the name of Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph and fresh names of two other High Court judges to the Centre for filling up vacancies in the apex court.
Against a sanctioned strength of 31, the apex court has only 22 judges.
The list includes Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice KM Joseph whose name has been reiterated by the Collegium for the second time after the Centre objected to his name claiming he lacked seniority. Brushing aside the Centre’s objection, the Collegium that met on July 16 said, “The Collegium resolves to reiterate the afore-mentioned recommendation, especially since nothing adverse regarding suitability of Justice KM Joseph has been pointed out in the aforesaid letters.”
The Union law Ministry had written two letters on April 26 and April 30 asking Collegium to reconsider its January 10 recommendation to elevate Justice Joseph to the Supreme Court. On the all-India seniority ranking among High Court judges, he was ranked no 45 when his name was first recommended. Sources pointed out that the Centre may concede on this name to allay apprehensions that the Centre was deliberately blocking his name after he had quashed President’s Rule in Uttarakhand paving way for the Congress Government to regain power.
The other two names recommended to the Supreme Court include Madras High Court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Orissa High Court Chief Justice Vineet Saran. Justice Banerjee has Calcutta as her parent High Court while Justice Saran belongs to Allahabad. They are ranked at number 4 and 5 respectively in the all-India seniority among HC judges. Considering their seniority, merit and integrity, the Collegium recommended their names. If the appointment goes through, the number of women judges in Supreme Court it will go to three, the remaining being Justice R Banumathi and the recent entrant Justice Indu Malhotra.
In addition, the Collegium made crucial appointments of Chief Justices in Delhi HC, Jammu and Kashmir HC, Kerala HC, Gujarat HC, Patna HC, Jharkhand HC and Orissa HC. Replacing Chief Justice Banerjee at Madras HC will be another woman judge, Justice VK Tahilramani, who is currently the senior puisne judge of that HC. At Orissa HC, Justice KS Jhaveri, currently serving at Rajasthan High Court will replace Chief Justice Saran.
Acting Chief Justice of Delhi HC Gita Mittal has been transferred as Chief Justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court while Jharkhand HC Chief Justice Rajendra Menon will take over as Chief Justice of Delhi HC. Earlier, the Collegium had recommended the name of Justice Aniruddha Bose as Delhi HC Chief Justice. But the Centre returned the recommendation to consider appointing a serving Chief Justice to Delhi which enjoys a special status of being the Capital’s High Court. The Collegium reconsidered its decision and resolved to send Justice Bose as Chief Justice of Jharkhand HC.
Besides, the Collegium also recommended the senior puisne judge of Kerala HC Justice Hrishikesh Roy to take over as Chief Justice of that the HC retrospectively from May 30, 2018. Justice MR Shah has been shifted as Chief Justice of Patna High Court.