Collegium still to meet on Joseph’s top court elevation

NEW DELHI: As uncertainty lingers over the elevation of Uttarakhand HC Chief Justice KM Joseph to the Supreme Court, the collegium headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra has not met to discuss the issue since a May 16 resolution that it would convene “at the earliest.”

The panel of first senior-most judges, which approves the appointment of judges to the top court and the high courts, last met two days before the court broke for a 43-day summer recess on May 18. The resolution uploaded on the top court website stated that the “meeting stands deferred to be held at the earliest”. A fortnight later, no meeting has been convened, and officials familiar with the process said that there is no likelihood of a meeting in the coming week because at least three of the five judges were not in town.

All five judges are expected to be in Delhi in the second week of June. The summer vacation ends on July 2. If the collegium fails to meet before June 22, when Justice J Chelameswar demits office, the recommendation on Justice Joseph could be further delayed as the panel will be reconstituted with Justice AK Sikri — now the sixth senior-most judge — replac- ing Justice Chelameswar. Though Justice Sikri’s induction into the collegium will be automatic, the officials said, the process of sending the names will commence afresh as per procedure. At the last collegium meeting, a decision was taken to send Justice Joseph’s name back to the government, but the view was that his file be sent along with the names of some judges from high courts that have no representation in the Supreme Court.

The collegium had first recommended Justice Joseph’s elevation on January 10 this year and along with that of Justice Indu Malhotra (then a senior advocate) directly from the bar.

The Centre on April 26 cleared Justice Malhotra’s appointment but returned Justice Joseph’s file, asking the collegium to consider adequate representation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, minorities, and suggested better regional representation in the SC. As per norm, the government is bound to accept the collegium’s proposal if it is reiterated. But there is no time limit for it to formalise an appointment. Opposition parties, led by the Congress, have alleged that the government has been sitting on Justice Joseph’s file because he had in 2016 quashed the central government’s move to impose President’s Rule in Uttarakhand. NEW DELHI: Well, dear President Trump hasn’t quite built the wall to keep the Mexicans out, but he’s figured he can do something else destructive: stop Americans from enjoying migratory birds.

Luckily, the Natural Resources Defense Counci (NRDC) and other environmental organisations are suing to prevent this. What the American government has done is to ‘loosen’ the Migra-