Supreme Court Collegium names 2 who opposed CJI's method for appointing judges

Tribune News Service

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, October 10

In an unprecedented display of transparency, the Supreme Court Collegium on Monday made public details of the recent controversy arising out of an objection raised by two Collegium members against the procedure adopted by CJI UU Lalit to consider four names for elevation to the top court.

Justices Chandrachud, Nazeer objected to letter

• Collegium says Justice Chandrachud & Justice Nazeer objected to a letter circulated by CJI UU Lalit seeking their views on four names proposed for elevation
• The names proposed for elevation to the top court were Punjab & Haryana HC Chief Justice Ravi Shankar Jha, Patna HC Chief Justice Sanjay Karol, Manipur HC Chief Justice PV Sanjay Kumar & senior advocate KV Viswanathan

In a statement, dated October 9, which was uploaded on the Supreme Court’s website on Monday, the Collegium disclosed that Justice DY Chandrachud (who is likely to be the next CJI) and Justice S Abdul Nazeer had objected to a letter circulated by CJI Lalit seeking their views in writing on the four names proposed for elevation.

The names proposed in the CJI’s letter for elevation to the top court were Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Ravi Shankar Jha, Patna High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Karol, Manipur High Court Chief Justice PV Sanjay Kumar and senior advocate KV Viswanathan.

The circulation of a letter to seek Collegium members’ views on the proposed elevation was a departure from the normal procedure as members generally attend Collegium meetings physically. However, now it has been disclosed that besides CJI Lalit, two other Collegium members — Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice KM Joseph — had agreed to the four names proposed for elevation to the top court, which is functioning with only 29 judges against its sanctioned strength of 34.

According to the Collegium statement, informal deliberations on the proposed appointments had been going on for some time and a formal meeting took place on September 26, when 11 names of judges were considered.

As there was unanimity on the name of Bombay High Court Chief Justice Dipankar Dutta, a resolution to this effect was passed and the consideration of the rest 10 names was deferred till September 30, it said.

The statement disclosed that the procedure of circulating the judgments of the prospective candidates for making an objective assessment of their relative merit was introduced for the first time in the September 26 meeting in which Justice Dutta’s name was cleared.

In view of a demand by some members to have more judgments of the other candidates, the Collegium meeting was postponed to September 30 and more judgments were circulated. Another Collegium meeting was convened on September 30 However, since Justice Chandrachud did not attend it, the CJI sent a letter, dated September 30, by way of circulation, the statement read, giving the exact sequence of events leading to the controversy. While Justice Kaul and Justice Joseph gave their approval on October 1 and October 7, respectively, by separate letters, dated October 1, Justice Chandrachud and Justice Nazeer objected to the method adopted in the CJI’s letter, dated September 30, even though they “did not disclose any views against any of these candidates”.

The CJI wrote another letter on October 2, but there was no response to it, the statement read. “Thus, the proposal initiated by the CJI had concurrence from Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice KM Joseph. Justice Chandrachud and Justice Nazeer had objected to the process of selection and appointing judges by circulation,” the statement read. Noting that the matter was ideally suited to have a discussion across the table among the Collegium members, the statement clarified that the meeting, dated September 30, stood “discharged” in view of Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju’s October 7 letter requesting the CJI to nominate his successor.

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