Chief Justice of India Sanjiv Khanna has recommended the impeachment of Allahabad High Court judge Yashwant Varma following an investigation into a cash discovery incident at his residence. The recommendation follows a report by a Supreme Court-appointed committee that confirmed allegations of cash discovery against Justice Varma. The CJI's recommendation is based on the established in-house procedure for dealing with allegations against judges of constitutional courts.
The Supreme Court is likely to pronounce on Wednesday the verdict on bringing transparency in the collegium system of appointing judges in higher judiciary.
The government has returned twice to the Supreme Court collegium a recommendation made by it.
Refuting Justice Chelameswar's charge, the functionaries, who requested anonymity, said the law ministry had twice returned the file relating to the elevation of principal district judge P K Bhat because the collegium did not comply with the Vishakha guidelines.
The Bombay High Court has ruled that Pushpa Ganediwala, the former HC judge who had faced criticism for a series of controversial judgments in POCSO Act cases, is entitled to receive pension on par with a high court judge. Ganediwala was demoted as district sessions judge at the end of her additional judgeship in 2022 following an uproar over some judgments passed by her on the interpretation of what constitutes a sexual assault under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. She had filed a petition challenging a communication issued by the HC registrar declaring that she was not eligible for pension of a HC judge. The court quashed the communication and directed the registry to fix her pension with 6% interest from February 2022.
Allahabad High Court judge Justice Shekhar Yadav, who was embroiled in controversy for his speech at a VHP event in December, has opted out of a seminar on the Ram temple movement in the Kumbh Mela area on January 22. Yadav was scheduled to deliver the keynote address at the seminar, which is being held to mark the first anniversary of the consecration ceremony of Lord Ram Lalla in the Ayodhya temple.
Out of 77 names recommended by collegium to the government, 34 have been cleared for appointment as high court judges.
A five-judge constitution bench headed by Justice KM Joseph is likely to give its verdict.
'Presumption of innocence must guide all formal actions, but transparency must not be mistaken for pre-judgment.' 'The cruel irony, however, is that Justice Varma is a fine judge who enjoys a reputation for writing well-reasoned judgments.'
The five-member Collegium, headed by Chief Justice of India Dipak Misra, said that there was 'nothing adverse' regarding suitability of Justice Joseph.
The government issued a public notice inviting suggestions from the common man on ways to improve the collegium system to appoint judges to the Supreme Court and the high courts.
Justice J Chelameswar, a senior judge of the SC and a member of the five-member collegium, has written to the CJI seeking transparency in the appointment of higher judiciary judges.
The Centre expressed its inability before the SC in formulating the draft Memorandum of Procedure for appointment of judges.
The resolution of the May 16 collegium meeting stated that there was need for deliberation on bringing the judges from the high courts, which are not represented, to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court collegium has decided to drop its recommendation for elevating Karnataka Chief Justice P D Dinakaran, facing charges of land grabbing, to the apex court, bringing to end months of controversy over the move. The collegium led by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and including Justice S H Kapadia, Tarun Chatterjee, Altamas Kabir and R V Raveendran, met on Thursday evening and decided to take back the recommendation for his elevation.
Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi said the collegium system, which became re-operational with Friday's Supreme Court verdict, is not found in the Constitution.
Senior judges have developed a cushy arrangement among themselves: you back the appointment of so-and-so advocate's junior, and I will back so-and-so judge's nephew, says Subir Roy
The Supreme Court on Wednesday came out with a slew of guidelines to improve the collegium system of appointment of judges in the higher judiciary to make it more transparent and accountable by asking the Centre to finalise a memorandum of procedure in consultation with the Chief Justice of India.
'There is one weapon in the government's armoury which impacts the independence of the judiciary, and which has not been affected by the collegium system.' 'It is post-retirement employment with the government. 'This is because some judges -- but not all -- are offered post-retirement employment by the government, and it has often been feared that judges close to retirement might decide cases so as to please the government in order to get a favourable post-retirement position,' says Abhinav Chandrachud.
The decision was taken on October 3.
'Senior Vatican officials were pleasantly surprised at the number of Indians who had come to witness the ceremony.'
The collegium system of appointment of judges is likely to stay for the time being as Parliament could not pass a constitutional amendment bill in the last session of the Lok Sabha to put in place a new mechanism giving the Executive a say in the matter.
The Supreme Court on Monday flagged the issue of "pick and choose" by the Centre in clearing the collegium's recommendations for transferring high court judges and said this does not send a good signal.
The top court collegium headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud had on July 5 recommended the appointment of Justice Mridul, a judge of the Delhi high court, as the chief justice of the Manipur high court, amid the ethnic turmoil in the border state.
The Supreme Court on Thursday said there was no bar on the collegium to go ahead with its work to appoint judges for the higher judiciary, which is plagued with large-scale vacancies.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled out making "wholesale changes" in the collegium system of appointment of judges for higher judciary.
The Supreme Court Monday said the appointment of the chief justice of Manipur high court has finally received the Centre's attention and will be notified "shortly", over three months after the apex court collegium had recommended Delhi high court judge Siddharth Mridul for the post.
Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan on Monday said the Supreme Court collegium made a mistake in recommending the name of Karnataka High Court Chief Justice P D Dinakaran for appointment to the apex court and maintained that any judge found to have trespassed any land is not fit to be elevated.
Notwithstanding reservations of judiciary, Parliament on Thursday took cleared two bills providing for a new mechanism for appointment of judges to higher judiciary by scrapping the collegium system that had come under attack from political parties and others.
Given the possibilities that next year's assembly elections could throw up, Stalin told the state assembly that an interim report had to be submitted by January 2026. The outcomes may well find its way into the DMK's poll manifesto, thus seeking to keep the electoral focus still on the BJP-ruled Centre and Prime Minister Modi, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Karnataka high court Chief Justice P B Varale was on Thursday administered the oath of office as a Supreme Court judge by Chief Justice of India Justice D Y Chandrachud in New Delhi.
Former Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud has expressed concern about the influence of social media on the judiciary, stating that special interest groups are using it to sway court decisions and judges need to be vigilant. He highlighted the dangers of forming opinions based on short social media clips, emphasizing the nuanced nature of judicial decision-making. Chandrachud also defended the collegium system for judicial appointments and clarified that while there is no legal bar on judges entering politics after retirement, their decisions might be scrutinized differently due to their past roles.
As Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's tenure comes to an end, it is time for him to introspect the damage he has done to various institutions, says Arun Jaitley
"The government has cleared seven names out of the 106 judges and one out of the nine for chief justices, so far. I expect that the government will clear the rest of the names very soon. These appointments will take care of pendency to some extent. I seek the cooperation and support of the Government to enable access to justice and to strengthen democracy," CJI N V Ramana said.
Displaying earnest, government will seek the views of jurists and former judges on the proposed Judicial Appointments Commission bill it plans to bring in Parliament to replace the present collegium system where judges appoint judges.
Keen to scrap the collegium system, government on Monday introduced a Constitution Amendment Bill in Lok Sabha to establish a six-member body for appointment of judges to the Supreme Court and the high courts.
Justice Chandrachud also dealt with questions about criticism by eminent lawyers on the allocation of cases to particular judges and 'bench hunting', and said the allocation of cases is not "lawyer-driven" and vowed to maintain the credibility of the institution of the Supreme Court.
There is no need for changing the present collegium system of appointing judges to the higher judiciary nor the impeachment provisions in the Constitution, says Chief Justice of India designate Justice P Sathasivam.
The top court, which was hearing a matter relating to an alleged delay by the Centre in clearing the names recommended by the collegium for appointment as judges to constitutional courts, has posted the matter for further hearing on February 3.
Defending the collegium's decision to appoint advocate Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri appointment as a judge of the Madras high court, Chief Justice DY Chandrachud has said one should not be "cold calling" individuals merely for views they may have held as lawyers.
