SC COLLEGIUM CLEARS JOSEPH’S NAME AGAIN
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court collegium on Friday cleared names of three new judges for elevation to the Supreme Court, including that of justice K M Joseph, chief justice of the Uttrakhand high court.
Besides reiterating the name of Justice K M Joseph, names of justice Indira Banerjee, chief justice Madras HC and justice Vineet Sharan chief justice Orissa HC, for appointment to the SC have been sent to Central government.
Recommending the name of Justice Joseph again, after the government flagged his appointment in April this year, the Collegium in its resolution has said, “The Collegium, on due consideration of all the aspects mentioned in the aforesaid two letters (by the government), resolves to reiterate the afore-mentioned recommendation, especially since nothing adverse regarding suitability of Mr Justice K M Joseph has been pointed out in the aforesaid letters.”
Confirming the names of two other judges for the Supreme Court, the Collegium asserted – “While recommending the name of Ms Justice Indira Banerjee and Mr Justice Vineet Saran, the Collegium has taken into consideration combined seniority on all-India basis of chief justices and senior puisne judges of high courts, apart from their merit and integrity.”
With Banerjee’s appointment, the number of women SC judges would go to an all-time high of three. The SC has never had three women judges since 1950.
Justice Indu Malhotra recently became the first woman judge to be directly appointed to the top court from the Bar. R Bhanumati is the other woman judge in the Supreme Court.
Since the retirement of Justices Amitav Roy, R K Agarwal, J Chelameswar and Justice AK Goel retired in March this year, Indu Malhotra is the only judge to have been appointed to the SC.
Appointments of judges to the SC have been stuck over the contentious elevation of Joseph. The collegium first cleared Joseph’s name for elevation in January 2018. The government sat over the recommendation for over four months and returned his file in April. The government argued that Joseph’s elevation would increase the number of judges from the Kerala high court to two. It said there were many high courts that do not have any representation in the SC.
Against the sanctioned strength of 31 judges but the Supreme Court is presently functioning with 22 judges.
With the new appointments the strength will go up to 25, still leaving seven vacancies.The collegium has also recommended transfers of seven chief justices of various high courts.
Government had recently returned to the Supreme Court collegium the proposed elevation of Calcutta high court judge Aniruddha Bose as the chief justice of the Delhi high court. Rejecting Justice Bose’s name for Delhi high court, the government had said Delhi high court is a prominent seat, and since Justice Bose has not headed any other high court in the past, the government does not think the recommendation was correct.
WITH THE NEW APPOINTMENTS THE STRENGTH WILL GO UP TO 25, STILL LEAVING SEVEN VACANCIES.THE COLLEGIUM HAS ALSO RECOMMENDED TRANSFERS OF SEVEN CHIEF JUSTICES OF VARIOUS HIGH COURTS.