Collegium files to go to Justice Chelameswar for consent

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, November 3

Chief Justice of India TS Thakur and three other senior-most Supreme Court judges have decided to recommend elevation of High Court Chief Justices to the apex court by sending the Collegium files to Justice J Chelameswar, the fifth judge who has refused to attend the meetings unless the proceedings are recorded, for taking his consent.

The five-member Collegium has not met for two months following Justice Chelameswar’s decision to boycott it. He has maintained that the Collegium is duty-bound to record the minutes of its meetings under a judgment delivered by a Bench of nine SC judges in 1993 for putting in place the five-member Collegium.

Justice Chelameswar wrote a letter to the CJI on September 1 seeking transparency in the appointment of higher judiciary judges. As an alternative, he suggested that Collegium files be sent to him for recording his opinion in view of his decision to stay away from its meetings.

Faced with the stalemate, the SC Collegium has decided to accept Justice Chelameswar’s suggestion.