Justice Chelameswar writes to CJI on elevation of Justice K M Joseph

Justice Chelameswar, who is a member of the collegium, is retiring on June 22 but the top court is left with six working days before it goes for six week summer break next weekend

With just six working days left before Justice J.Chelameswar bids adieu to Supreme Court, he has shot a letter to Chief Justice Dipak Misra seeking reiteration of apex court collegium's January 10 unanimous recommendation for elevating the Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice K.M.Joseph to the top court.

Though Justice Chelameswar, who is a member of the collegium, is retiring on June 22 but the top court is left with six working days before it goes for six week summer break next weekend, reports IANS.

In a letter written on Wednesday, Justice Chelameswar has urged Chief Justice Misra that the reiteration of January 10 recommendation must be done at the earliest and file carrying reiteration be sent back to the government.

The reiteration of the recommendation for the elevation of Justice Joseph to the top court at the earliest would require the convening of the meeting of the collegium which had its last meeting on May 2.

At this meeting, the collegium had deferred decision on the government's request to reconsider its recommendation for the elevation of Justice Joseph to top court. The meeting was inconclusive but no specific date was given for the next meeting of the collegium which was speculated to take place this week.

Friday is the last working day of the week.

Besides reconsidering its recommendation on elevating Justice Joseph to top court, the collegium was also to consider names of Judges from Calcutta, Rajasthan, and Telangana and Andhra Pradesh High Courts for elevation as Judges of the Supreme Court.

Justice Kurian Joseph – also a member of collegium – had earlier said that the Central government should not have rejected the recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium on the appointment of a judge as this has never happened before.