The Centre expressed its inability before the SC in formulating the draft Memorandum of Procedure for appointment of judges.
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.
Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said Justice S Muralidhar of the Delhi high court was transferred on the recommendation of the Supreme Court collegium and accused the Congress of politicising a routine transfer. He added that a "well-settled process" was followed in the transfer of Justice Muralidhar to the Punjab and Haryana high court.
Out of 77 names recommended by collegium to the government, 34 have been cleared for appointment as high court judges.
Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi will administer the oath of office to the two judges on Friday, an official circular said.
The CJI administered the oath of office to the two new judges in a swearing-in ceremony held at the apex court's auditorium in New Delhi.
The collegium had recommended her transfer on August 28, after which she had made a representation requesting it to reconsider the proposal.
Some of his directives had the Supreme Court judges disclose their assets whereas the row over the discovery of cash from a sitting judge's official residence paved way for inquiry.
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.
The system of 'selecting' an election commissioner, which is before the Supreme Court, must be institutionalised.
'Is the idea of a committed judiciary once again being floated, though surreptitiously, unlike in the past when it was direct?'
Bombay high court judge Justice Pushpa Ganediwala, who faced flak over a series of judgments that were deemed as controversial for the interpretation of what constitutes as 'sexual assault' under the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, has resigned.
A five-judge bench of the apex court chaired by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud sat on a holiday to address the dispute where a defiant judge overruled an order of a division bench that had quashed his direction for a CBI probe and asked the central agency to go ahead with the investigation.
'The quality of justice is directly linked to the quality of judges -- if that suffers, justice delivery suffers.'
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.
Most of the recommendations with regard to appointment of judges in high courts were pending with the collegium headed by the CJI, it said.
While naming him as the NDA candidate for the Vice President's post, the BJP had described him as 'Kisan putra', a move seen in the political circles aimed at reaching out to the politically significant Jat community which had participated in huge numbers in the year-long farmers' protests against agriculture reform measures unveiled in June 2020.
The Prime Minister's Office during Manmohan Singh's tenure had asked why the Supreme Court collegium had not recommended extension for a Madras High Court judge who was facing corruption charges after the collegium expressed its hesitation, Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in Parliament on Tuesday
'If you were to say today that the government should appoint judges to the high courts and Supreme Court, then I think that even those few good judges that we are getting today we would not get them.'
Several top jurists on Monday pushed for scrapping the existing collegium system where judges appoint judges but government's plans to bring a bill to make the process of appointments more transparent may take some more time.
The senior most among the five judges, whose names were officially announced by the Centre on Saturday, is Justice Mithal whose parent cadre is the Allahabad high court.
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 fresh appointments are to be made to the Allahabad, Calcutta, Delhi, Rajasthan and the Bombay high courts, among others.
The year 2022 is going to be the second year since the inception of the top court in 1950 which will see three different CJIs in as many months.
Facing criticism from the Chief Justice of India over the Gopal Subramanium controversy, the government on Wednesday said it has the "highest regard" for the
People sitting in responsible positions have to think before saying anything, whether it will benefit the country or not
The sources indicated that the government was not averse to elevating Justice Kureshi as the chief justice of some other high court.
Justice Ramana said that he took up the issues concerning the appointment of judges and infrastructure during his term and hoped that he stood up to the expectations of the legal fraternity.
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.
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.
Senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam on Wednesday asked the Chief Justice of India to withdraw the recommendation about his candidature as the judge of the Supreme Court.
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.
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.
Parliamentary sovereignty cannot be permitted to be diluted or compromised by the executive or the judiciary, he said in his strongest remarks yet against alleged judicial interference in the working of Parliament.
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.
The Congress' attack comes after Law Minister Rijiju wrote to Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud suggesting the inclusion of representatives from the Union and state governments in the Supreme Court and high court collegiums.
Senior advocate Uday U Lalit has been recommended by the Supreme Court collegium to be a judge on its bench.
The Supreme Court collegium on Friday transferred Justice Dinakaran to Sikkim high court. On April 3, the collegium had asked the chief justice of Karnataka high court to go on leave. Dinakaran, 59, has not been performing judicial functions after Rajya Sabha Chairman Hamid Ansari admitted a motion in December seeking his removal on charges of corruption, land-grab and abuse of the judicial office.
'He was the best court craftsman that I have ever seen who could modulate his arguments in accordance with the judge and the mood.'
What is the independence of the judiciary if independent and fearless judges are not being appointed, SC judge Rohinton Fali Nariman said.
