Chelameswar laments non-elevation of Justice Joseph as top court judge

NEW DELHI: Justice J Chelameswar, who demitted office on Friday, has disapproved of the Centre’s decision not to elevate Justice KM Joseph to the Supreme Court, terming the action as “not sustainable”.

Justice Chelameswar, who had held an unprecedented presser along with three other senior Supreme Court judges to highlight the alleged discrimination in allocation of cases to benches, said that the credibility of the highest judiciary was “occasionally” in danger.

“I wish and pray that he (Joseph, the Uttarakhand Chief Justice) becomes a judge of the Supreme Court. I have not stalled it. I have been repeatedly asking for it. The collegium has unanimously reiterated its recommendation,” Chelameswar told news outlets.

He termed Justice Joseph as an “outstanding judge” and said he should have been elevated to the apex court and the collegium must reiterate his name to the Centre.

He told NDTV that Justice Joseph did not belong to his religion, community or language, but yet he fought for him.

He said “the government should not process the recommendations (for elevation of judges) for months together. That will lead to a situation where appointments are not made, vacancies are not filled. All this will result in more and more pendency.”

On the issue of his virtual revolt against Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, the judge said he did not regret holding the press conference on January 12.

Justice Chelameswar rued the fact that though many former judges had hailed him for his decision to highlight the deficiencies in the functioning of the apex court but rightthinking persons were not coming forward.

“It is the silence of the rightthinking people that causes more damage...,” he told news portal The Print.

He said that one of the former judges had wished him “strength” but had expressed inability to speak out.