NEW DELHI: Pursuant to the Central government clearing the name for Justice Dipankar Datta’s elevation as SC judge, the Supreme Court collegium headed by CJI DY Chandrachud on Tuesday recommended five names to the Centre for elevation as SC judges.
The names of the five judges who have been recommended for elevation and SC judges are Justice Pankaj Mithal (CJ of Rajasthan HC), Justice Sanjay Karol (CJ of Patna HC), Justice PV Sanjay Kumar (CJ of Manipur HC), Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah (Judge of Patna HC) and Justice Manoj Mishra (Judge of Allahabad HC).
If these names are cleared, the SC will have 33 judges out of the total sanctioned strength of 34. The six-member collegium has also recommended the elevation of Justice Sanjaya Kumar Mishra (currently as judge in Uttarakhand) as CJ of Jharkhand HC, Justice N Kotiswar Singh (currently Gauhati HC judge) as CJ of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh HC and Justice K. Vinod Chandran (currently Kerala HC) as CJ of Gauhati HC.
The recommendation assumes relevance amidst the tussle that is going on between the executive and judiciary with regards to the appointment of judges. SC on various occasions has rapped the Center for their inordinate delay in appointment of judges of the SC and HC. While Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju on certain occasions has criticised the present system of selection of judges through the collegium system by calling it “opaque”, “unaccountable” and “alien to the Constitution”.
Even VP Jagdeep Dhankar in his maiden speech in the Rajya Sabha had termed SC striking down National Judicial Commission (NJAC) as glaring instance of “severe compromise” of Parliamentary sovereignty and disregard of mandate of the people.
Also in top court
Uddhav’s Sena seeks seven judge bench
Uddhav Thackeray Shiv Sena faction on Tuesday informed the Supreme Court’s five judge constitution bench that it will seek reference of cases related to Maharashtra political crisis to a seven judge bench to have a relook at SC’s 2016 verdict which deals with powers of speaker to deal with disquali- fication pleas.
Navlakha’s house arrest extended
The Supreme Court on Tuesday extended the house arrest of Bhima Koregan accused Gautam Navlakha till second week of January. A bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna extended the interim order for Navlakha’s house arrest due to unavailability of Additional Solicitor General SV Raju.