Collegium sends 2 more names for elevation to Supreme Court even as govt sitting over five names since Dec 13

Tribune News Service

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, January 31

Amid ongoing stand-off with the Government over judicial appointments, the Supreme Court Collegium on Tuesday recommended elevation of Allahabad High Court Chief Justice Rajesh Bindal and Gujarat High Court Chief Justice Aravind Kumar as judges of the top court.

The Supreme Court – which has a sanctioned strength of 34 Judges—is presently functioning with 27 Judges, and has “seven clear vacancies”.

There were 69,768 pending in the top court as on January 1, 2023.

A six-member Collegium led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud made the recommendation even as the Centre continued to sit over its December 13, 2022 recommendation for the elevation of three high court chief justices and two high court judges to the top court.

The other members of the Collegium are: Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Justice KM Joseph, Justice MR Shah, Justice Ajay Rastogi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna.

While the Collegium’s resolution for the elevation of Justice Bindal was unanimous, Justice Joseph expressed his reservations to the elevation of Justice Kumar on the ground that his name could be considered at a later stage, the top court announced on its website.

While Justice Bindal stands at serial number 2 in the combined All-India-seniority of high court judges, Justice Kumar is at number 26.

It said after deliberating on and discussing the names of Chief Justices and senior puisne Judges of high courts eligible for appointment to the Supreme Court and carefully evaluating their merit, integrity and competence and also accommodating a plurality of considerations, Justice Bindal and Justice Kumar were found to be “more deserving and suitable in all respects for being appointed as Judges of the Supreme Court of India”.

“Judgments authored by those falling in the zone of consideration for elevation to the Supreme Court were circulated among the members of the Collegium for a meaningful discussion on and assessment of their judicial acumen,” the resolution read.

On December 13, the Collegium had recommended the names of Rajasthan High Court Chief Justice Pankaj Mithal, Patna High Court Chief Justice Sanjay Karol, Manipur High Court Chief Justice PV Sanjay Kumar, Patna High Court Judge Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Allahabad High Court Manoj Misra for appointment as judges of the Supreme Court.

The resolution specifically mentioned that the appointment was yet to be notified by the Government.

In order to prevent the Government from disturbing the order of seniority decided by it, the Collegium said, “The names recommended earlier by the Collegium by its resolution dated 13 December 2022 shall have precedence over the two names recommended presently for appointment to the Supreme Court. Therefore, the appointments of five judges recommended on 13 December 2022 should be notified separately and earlier in point of time before the two judges recommended by this resolution.”

Justice Bindal was appointed as a Judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court on March 22, 2006 and went on to become the Chief Justice of the Allahabad High Court on October 11, 2021. He is the senior-most Judge hailing from the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

Justice Kumar was appointed as an Additional Judge of the Karnataka High Court on June 26, 2009 and as a permanent Judge on December 7, 2012. He was elevated as Chief Justice of the Gujarat High Court on October 13, 2021. Justice Kumar is the second senior-most Judge hailing from the Karnataka High Court.

Earlier, the Centre had on December 11, 2022 notified the appointment of Bombay High Court Chief Justice Dipankar Datta as a judge of the Supreme Court 76 days after the Collegium recommended his elevation.

The Centre and the Supreme Court Collegium have been at loggerheads with Law Minister Kiren Rijiju saying the Collegium was “alien to the Constitution. Rijiju had endorsed the views of former Delhi High Court Judge RS Sodhi who accused the Supreme Court of hijacking the Constitution by deciding to appoint judges itself.

An anguished Supreme Court has been emphasising that the Collegium system was the law of the land that must be followed.

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