Collegium agrees to reiterate Justice Joseph as SC judge

​New Delhi: The Supreme Court collegium on Friday announced that it will reiterate KM Joseph’s recommendation for elevation to the Supreme Court, according to sources. The Apex Court collegium took the decision to reiterate Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court Justice KM Joseph’s name after an hour-long meeting of SC judges, including CJI Dipak Misra, and 5 other judges on the issue.

The top court collegium had on January 10 recommended the name of Justice KM Joseph and Indu Malhotra to the Supreme Court. While Indu Malhotra was elevated as SC judge, the elevation of KM Joseph was halted. The Centre had asked the Supreme Court to reconsider the recommendation of KM Joseph’s elevation.

The reiteration, however, should also be accompanied by the recommendation of the names of Chief Justices of High Courts for elevation as judges of the Supreme Court, for which detailed discussion is required,” a note put up on the court website said.

Sources said a final decision on the other names will be taken on May 16, when the Collegium will also discuss the names of other senior High Court Chief Justices. Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra called a meeting of the collegium on Friday after Justice Jasti Chelameswar, the second seniormost judge, wrote a letter asking for a meeting to reiterate Joseph’s name. Justice Chelameswar retires on June 22 and the next meeting could well be his last, since the court breaks for summer vacation from May 18 to July 2.

At the earlier meeting, while the CJI pushed for the names of senior judges from the High Courts of Calcutta, Rajasthan, and Telangana & Andhra Pradesh for elevation as judges of the Supreme Court, the other four judges were in agreement that Justice Joseph’s name must first be reiterated before discussing fair regional representation from other High Courts.

Apart from Justice Joseph, the other names that the collegium considered were Indira Banerjee, currently Chief Justice of the Madras HC, who is originally from the Calcutta HC; Gujarat HC Chief Justice R Subhash Reddy, who is originally from the Telangana & Andhra Pradesh HC; and Karnataka HC Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari, who is originally from the Rajasthan HC. However, since there was no consensus, the matter was deferred.

The additional names were considered in light of the Modi government’s insistence, underlined in its letter to CJI Dipak Misra while returning the name of Justice Joseph for reconsideration, that seniority and the principle of regional representation must be taken into consideration while recommending names.

It is important for all members of the Collegium to be on board as the 1988 Supreme Court ruling in the Third Judges Case specifies that the reiteration of a name must be unanimous and not a vote by majority. Escalating its conflict with the judiciary, the Modi government last month appointed senior advocate Indu Malhotra as a judge of the apex court, while ignoring the recommendation to elevate Justice Joseph. Both recommendations were sent together to the government on January 10.