The bench refused to entertain the plea filed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms and dismissed it.
CJI Lalit concurred with the minority view of Justice S Ravindra Bhat who held the EWS quota as "unconstitutional" for excluding poor among SCs, STs and OBCs.
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 SC collegium had in 2016 recommended names of Harnaresh Singh Gill and Mohammed Nizamuddin for appointment as judges of the Punjab and Haryana high court and the Calcutta high court respectively.
Mendiratta was appointed as judge based on his seniority as a judicial officer, sources in the government said.
Thackeray, whose Maha Vikas Aghadi government fell after a rebellion in June last year by his cabinet colleague Eknath Shinde, who went on to become CM, also warned he would extract revenge for his ouster.
'I wonder how people who come to power through democratic means turn out this way.' 'But people of India are strong, and those who think they can hoodwink people, are mistaken.' 'You can fool some people for some time, but not all people, all the time.'
Justices Rajesh Bindal and Aravind Kumar were administered oath during a swearing-in ceremony held in the Supreme Court premises.
It made the observation while deciding to keep the Gujarat high court advocate association's plea pending which has sought a direction to the Centre to implement the Supreme Court collegium's recommendations on the transfer of Bombay high court judge Justice Akil Kureshi.
The Centre had cleared Justice Indu Malhotra's file, it sent Justice Joseph's file back to the Collegium and asked it to reconsider its recommendation.
In a major cabinet reshuffle, Arjun Ram Meghwal has replaced Kiren Rijiju as the Union law and justice minister, a communique from the President's Secretariat said on Thursday.
Differences of opinion are a part of democracy and there are ways to find solutions to that, Law Minister Kiren Rijiju said on Thursday in Rajya Sabha on whether there exists differences between the judiciary and the executive on the issue of appointment of judges.
People sitting in responsible positions have to think before saying anything, whether it will benefit the country or not
The four names cleared by the government are justices Aniruddha Bose, A S Bopanna, B R Gavai and Surya Kant.
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Justice KM Joseph said the concepts of liberty, equality and fraternity must not be "strange bedfellows" to the ruling class.
Inaugurating the 39th chief justices' conference in New Delhi, which is being held after a gap of six years, the CJI outlined the agenda of the meeting and said the 'aim and object of today's conference is to discuss and identify the problems that are affecting the administration of justice'.
"I am not a person to retire and I am going to start a new inning of my life. I am praying to the almighty God to give me strength and courage and good health to play the new inning," said Justice Shah.
"What kind of prayer is this," the bench said.
Justice Chandrachud will serve as the CJI for two years till November 10, 2024.
Chief Justice of India-designate Justice U U Lalit on Friday highlighted three areas on which he intends to work during his 74-day tenure as the head of the judiciary and said he would strive hard to ensure that at least one Constitution bench is functioning in the Supreme Court throughout the year.
Outgoing Chief Justice of India (CJI) N V Ramana on Friday said the appointment of 11 Supreme Court and 224 high court judges, besides recommending the names of more women for judgeship during his tenure as the head of the judiciary, was a reflection of "the coherence and determination" of judges to strengthen the judiciary to further the goal of justice.
'Justice K M Joseph is the senior-most chief justice of all the high courts in India.' 'The Supreme Court Collegium has recommended Justice Joseph's name to be elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court.' 'Despite these facts, the Government of India is not taking appropriate, speedy action, to forward the Supreme Court Collegium's recommendation to the President for Justice Joseph's appointment.'
The government's decision of not approving Joseph's name has evoked sharp reactions.
The government has also given its nod to appoint Madras high court Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Orissa high court Chief Justice Vineet Saran to the SC.
It is for the first time in the history of the apex court that nine judges took oath of office at one go.
The Centre has decided to put Justice Joseph's name in serial number 3 in the notification.
He took exception to an "ideological group of people", activists, intellectuals for giving "identification marks" to as to "who is an independent judge" and said that according to them a judge must be necessarily anti-establishment.
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.
Delhi high court judge Justice S Muralidhar was on Wednesday transferred to the Punjab and Haryana high court. A government notification about the transfer was issued on Wednesday which said that after consultation with Chief Justice Sharad Arvind Bobde, President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday transferred Justice S Muralidhar, judge of the Delhi high court, as judge of Punjab and Haryana high court. The notification further said the President has directed Muralidhar to assume charge of his office in Punjab and Haryana high court.
The fresh appointments are to be made to the Allahabad, Calcutta, Delhi, Rajasthan and the Bombay high courts, among others.
The government has acceded to some demands of the collegium including removing the cap on the number of jurists and lawyers who can be appointed to the Supreme Court as judges.
The SC prima facie observed the task cannot be entrusted to the members of the collegium.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday said the inclusion of the Chief Justice of India in the consultative process for the appointment of chief election commissioner would ensure independence of the poll panel.
Justice Chelameswar led three senior judges to an unprecedented press conference, mounting a virtual revolt against CJI Dipak Misra.
CJI Thakur, who is demitting office on Tuesday as the Chief Justice of India, has been regularly questioning the government over the appointment of judges for higher judiciary
He reaffirmed that parties opposed to the BJP can win with a "huge majority" in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls if they agree to join hands.
The names have been returned to Centre.
The bench referred to the rising vacancies of judges in the high courts and the increasing number of pending cases.
The remarks by the CJI came against the backdrop of the recent remarks by Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar who questioned the landmark 1973 Kesavananda Bharati case verdict that gave the basic structure doctrine.
Vacancies in high courts continue to mount with the collegium which made a comeback three months ago yet to recommend fresh names for the posts, including that of chief justices to eight of them.
