justice Lalitwho cited less than a month from the retirement rule to prevent his predecessor Justice NV Ramana With the collegium’s nod to fill two vacant posts of Supreme Court judges, a single rule is preventing it from recommending any names.
The imposition of the same rule would bar CJI Lalit from holding collegium meetings after October 8, as he is retiring on November 8, for consideration of names for making recommendations to the government to fill up vacancies in SCs. – can be discussed. Incidentally, the SC reopens only on October 10, when the collegium can meet and by that time the ‘less than one month’ rule will come into force.
In addition, efforts were made to get four names of the CJI – three incumbent Chief Justices of the HC and a senior advocate practicing in the SC – through circulation among the other four members of the collegium – Justices DY Chandrachud, Sanjay Kumar and others. Kishan KouliS Abdul Nazeer and KM Joseph have also faced stiff resistance from two members.
Responding to the CJI’s letter proposing the four names, two judges of the collegium have condemned the written attempt, saying “appointment to high constitutional office and appointment of Supreme Court judges should never be done through circulation”. should” and would like to be discussed in order to reach this. The only process for filling vacancies in SC should be consensus.
After the collegium meeting on September 29 was canceled due to the huge list of cases before a judge who sat till 9.15 pm to complete the hearing of the cases, the CJI sent a written resolution to the members of the collegium on September 30 to fill up the four vacant posts. Approval to fill was sought. post in sc
During the collegium meeting last week, 11 names were discussed by the members. On Thursday, the CJI later sent 103 judgments written by him to the members of the collegium to evaluate his judicial prowess. In view of the heavy workload of reading a large number of cases listed before them on Friday, most of the members could not take decisions in large numbers.
Besides this, some members of the collegium also objected to the promotion of a senior advocate at a time when the 11 High Courts are not represented in the SC. Additionally, some of them felt that promoting a senior advocate would reduce the chances of many senior high court judges, who have more than a decade of experience in constitutional courts, to rise to the top post in the judiciary. The senior advocate in question, if promoted, would have become the CJI in 2030.
The collegium headed by CJI Lalit, who had a short tenure of 74 days, has recommended to the government to appoint only one name – Justice Dipankar Dutta – as the SC judge.