The centre braces to clear appointment of the names of Madras High Court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Orissa High Court Chief Justice Vineet Saran as Supreme Court judges in the coming weeks, while it has planned to sit on Justice KM Joseph's appointment.
A government functionary has confirmed the development saying that the law ministry had moved the file of the two judges to the Prime Minister’s Office for final clearance, according to Hindustan Times.
According to NDTV reports, the collegium maintains its choice during the second recommendation.
“We have carefully considered the observations made by the Law Minister in his letters dated 26th April 2018 and 30th April, 2018 addressed to the Chief Justice of India referring back, for reconsideration, the recommendation made by us on 10th January, 2018 for appointment of Mr. Justice K.M. Joseph, Chief Justice of Uttarakhand High Court, as Judge of the Supreme Court,” the five-judge body wrote to the law ministry.
As per the constitution, if the collegium reiterates its choice in the second recommendation, then the centre is bound to accept it.
According to media reports, the collegium considers no additional names for elevation to the Supreme Court and the decision to recommend the two names, and the reiteration of Justice Joseph was taken unanimously.
The government had earlier cited three reasons for refusing to approve the Supreme Court Collegium’s recommendation to elevate Justice KM Joseph. The centre said the proposal was not in accordance with the apex court’s parameters of regional representation, seniority and no SC/ST representation.
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said there was “adequate representation” of Kerala in the higher judiciary from where Justice Joseph hails because three judges from Kerala are Chief Justices in the high courts and the apex court also has a judge from Kerala.
Considering that Joseph is the senior most among all chief justices of the 24 high courts, Prasad wrote that a candidate’s seniority may be overlooked in order to ensure regional representation. But the letter did mention seniority, making it clear that there are judges in some high courts who are senior to the Uttarakhand Chief Justice.