Impasse ends

Impasse ends

News:

1. The Centre has cleared the elevation of Justice K.M Joseph (Uttarakhand High Court Chief Justice) to the Supreme Court.

Important facts:

2. Justice Joseph’s name has been cleared along with the elevation of Chief Justices Indira Banerjee (Madras High Court) and Vineet Saran (Orissa High Court) to the Supreme Court.

3. Presidential warrants for the appointment will be taken out soon to complete the process.

4. The appointment of Justice was recommended by five-member collegiums few months ago.

5. His name was sent along with that of senior advocate Indu Malhotra to the Centre in January.

6. However, the centre opposed to his appointment because of his lack of seniority among the Chief Justices of the various high courts. It was also argued that his representation would give excessive representation to Kerala.

7. The government cleared only one of the two names, while seeking reconsideration of Justice Joseph’s candidature.

8. Such decisions tend to alter the inter se seniority among sitting judges, a factor that determines who becomes Chief Justice of India and who joins the collegiums.

9. Recently, it returned a recommendation concerning two appointments to the Allahabad High Court for the second time.

10. To resolve the conflict the judiciary and the government need to agreed upon a fresh memorandum of procedure for appointments.

11. Law Minster Ravi Shankar Prasad, said, “The proposed appointment of K.M. Joseph as a judge of the Supreme Court at this stage does not appear to be appropriate,”. It would not be justified to other more senior chief justices.

12. The collegiums, however, reiterated its stand and recommended Justice Joseph’s  for elevation.