The SC prima facie observed the task cannot be entrusted to the members of the collegium.
The lawyer had written to the district magistrate urging him to expedite the process of granting him a weapon licence. "I have apprehensions that I could be murdered in future," the July 15 letter reads.
The court's remarks came when the petitioner said they were seeking a court-monitored CBI probe into the deal.
Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, representing the Muslim parties in the case, tore up a pictorial map.
A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi said that even if one per cent chance of mediation exists in the politically sensitive land dispute matter, it should be done.
The four names cleared by the government are justices Aniruddha Bose, A S Bopanna, B R Gavai and Surya Kant.
Most of the recommendations with regard to appointment of judges in high courts were pending with the collegium headed by the CJI, it said.
The apex court said it would endeavour to constitute the larger bench at the earliest to hear the matter.
The search committee will forward the names to the selection committee comprising the Prime Minister, the Chief Justice of India or his nominee, Lok Sabha Speaker, the leader of the largest opposition party and an eminent jurist.
The government had declined to appoint Justice Joseph's to the top court and asked it to reconsider his name.
Congress leaders KC Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala alleged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah were involved in attempts to topple the JD-S-Congress government in Karnataka.
The hearing assumes significance as Verma, who has a running feud with Special CBI Director Rakesh Asthana, has been appearing before the three-member CVC headed by K V Chowdary and is understood to have given point-wise refusal to all the allegations levelled against him by his deputy.
The new bench comprises Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S A Nazeer.
Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan told the bench that Justice Lalit appeared for former UP CM Kalyan Singh in 1994.
With the two appointments, the strength of the top court will rise to 28 with three vacancies.
After an hour-long deliberation, the five-member collegium unanimously decided that Justice Joseph's name should be accompanied with the recommendation of names of other Chief Justices of high courts for elevation as judges of the Supreme Court.
The Centre had submitted that privilege documents were procured by petitioners in an illegal way and used to support their review petitions against the December 14, 2018 judgment of the apex court dismissing all pleas challenging procurement of 36 Rafale fighter jets from France.
Highlighting the pendency of cases in various courts of the country, he said Indian legal system is marked by long delays and some of the reasons for it are infrastructure gaps and considerable vacancies, particularly in subordinate courts.
The bench said it was necessary that question of 'judicial independence is accounted for in the balancing exercise' with RTI.
The apex court imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh each on them for wilfully disobeying its order by transferring CBI joint Director A K Sharma who was probing the Bihar shelter home sexual assault cases.
The following is the chronology of events related to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid land dispute in which, after the Supreme Court verdict, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday conducted the 'Bhoomi Pujan' or ground breaking ceremony and laid the foundation stone for the temple's construction.
The Akhara counsel told the apex court that their suit was basically for belongings, possession and management rights.
Apart from Joseph, Justices Indira Banerjee, Vineet Saran sworn in as judges of the Supreme Court in the order of seniority notified by the Centre.
If the judiciary loses this fight, it will suffer irreparable damage and all of us citizens will be the losers.
The judge cited personal reasons for not attending the farewell.
The bench said it has received some "conflicting reports" on the issue but it do not intend to comment on them at this stage.
The top court told Gandhi's counsel that it was not concerned with the political stand narrated in the affidavit.
A nine-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde at the outset said that it will only deal with the issues referred to it by a five-judge bench on November 14 in the Sabarimala case, and asked the lawyers to convene a meeting on January 17 to decide on 're-framing' or adding additional issues to be deliberated upon by it.
As the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) on Thursday sent a general advisory to all the states and Union territories asking them to deploy adequate security personnel at all sensitive places, political leaders made fresh calls to people not to indulge in making provocative remarks or spreading rumours.
A majority verdict by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices A M Khanwilkar and Indu Malhotra decided to keep pending the pleas seeking a review of its decision regarding the entry of women into the shrine, and said restrictions on women in religious places was not restricted to Sabarimala alone and was prevalent in other religions as well.
The momentum created by the landslide victory of the ruling party should be utilised to carry forward reforms in the legal field, says M J Antony.
The 74-year-old senior advocate had given up practice following his courtroom spat with then Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra.
"What kind of prayer is this," the bench said.
A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi rejected the contention of the petitioners, who said that in a form along with the annual data of a United Kingdom-based company in 2005-06, it was allegedly mentioned that Rahul Gandhi is a British citizen.
The bench will be headed by Justice N V Ramana and also comprise Justices S K Kaul, R Subhash Reddy, B R Gavai and Surya Kant.
The Centre has decided to put Justice Joseph's name in serial number 3 in the notification.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday allowed former Finance Minister P Chidambaram's son Karti Chidambaram to travel abroad after depositing Rs 10 crore with its registry.
The prime minister made these remarks at a meeting of the council of ministers, while asserting the need to maintain an atmosphere of amity and harmony in the country.
There are many instances in the past where the top court sat through midnight to hear the special cases.
The apex court fixed the matter for next hearing on November 16.
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