HC judge among 5 proposed by collegium for stint in SC

Source:- timesofindia.indiatimes.com

NEW DELHI: Ending a nine-month drought in appointment of judges to the highest court, the collegium headed by Chief Justice of India J S Khehar recommended the names of four high court chief justices and an HC judge to the Centre for appointment to the Supreme Court.

Many names in the list of HC chief justices discussed earlier by the collegium headed by former CJI T S Thakur were dropped and fresh names added to the new list finalised by the Justice Khehar-headed collegium, which also comprised Justices Dipak Misra, J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi and Madan B Lokur.

The names recommended are Rajasthan HC CJ Naveen Sinha, Madras HC CJ Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Chhattisgarh HC CJ Dipak Gupta, Kerala HC CJ Mohan M Shantanagouder and Karnataka HC’s Justice S Abdul Nazeer.

It is rare for a person who has not yet become chief justice of an HC to be recommended as an SC judge. Justice R C Lahoti of Delhi HC was appointed an SC judge in 1998 when he was not chief justice. Of the present strength of 23 judges as against the sanctioned strength of 31 in the SC, there is no Muslim. Justice Nazeer, when appointed, will be the only one from the community.

The names considered by the earlier collegium headed by Justice Thakur could not be sent to the government as Justice Chelameswar had lodged a protest that certain meritorious HC CJs were being ignored. He had also refused to attend meetings of the collegium headed by Justice Thakur citing absence of norms in selection and non-recording of views by collegium members on those in the zone of consideration.

Justice Sinha, who hails from Patna HC, was appointed chief justice of Rajasthan HC in May last year. Sixty-year-old Justice Sinha was earlier the CJ of Chhattisgarh HC.

Justice Kaul has witnessed turbulent times in Madras HC, both from the bar and one of his colleagues, since he became its chief justice in 2014. He graduated from Delhi University’s St Stephen’s College in 1979 in economics and did law from DU in 1982. Justice Kaul, 58, was first appointed as a judge of Delhi HC and became chief justice of Punjab and Haryana HC in 2013.

Justice Gupta hails from Himachal Pradesh and became a judge in his home HC in 2004. He became the first CJ of Tripura HC in March 2013. The 61-year-old is serving as CJ of Chhattisgarh HC.

Hailing from Karnataka, 58-year-old Justice Mohan Shantanagoudar was appointed as a judge in Karnataka HC in 2004. He was appointed CJ of Kerala HC in September last year.

Justice Chelameswar agreed with his colleagues in the collegium on these five names. But sources said he has sent a separate note to CJI Khehar. The sources said the collegium is working to finalise of the memorandum of procedure (MoP) for selection of judges to the SC and HCs.