The Supreme Court on Monday reconsidered a plea for urgent hearing of a petition challenging the appointment of lawyer Lekshmana Chandra Victoria Gowri as an additional judge of the Madras high court, and advanced the date of hearing to February 7 from February 10.
Government on Monday brought into force a controversial law to appoint members to the higher judiciary, two days before a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court hears a clutch of petitions challenging the National Judicial Appointments Commission Act.
The bench referred to the rising vacancies of judges in the high courts and the increasing number of pending cases.
"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.
The SC on Wednesday restrained all high courts from entertaining any petition challenging validity of NJAC act meant to replace the two-decade-old collegium system.
President Droupadi Murmu administered him the oath at a brief ceremony held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.
Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday hinted that the Narendra Modi government will rework on a constitutional amendment bill introduced by the previous dispensation which seeks to give the executive a say in appointment of judges.
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.
Outgoing Chief Justice of India Uday Umesh Lalit turned nostalgic on Monday as he recalled his journey of nearly 37 years in the Supreme Court, saying he enjoyed his stint both as a lawyer and a judge.
She is the first woman lawyer to enter the top judiciary directly.
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.
Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud, however, had no qualms about overturning the judgements of father Y V Chandrachud on hot- button issues like adultery and the right to privacy.
The bench is hearing a batch of pleas seeking a collegium-like system for the appointment of ECs and the Chief Election Commissioner.
'It is a very vital issue and we cannot keep it pending. We intend to pass an order as to who will hear the matter.'
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.
It is the primacy of the Constitution that determines the stability, harmony and productivity of democratic governance and Parliament reflecting mandate of the people is the ultimate and exclusive architect of the Constitution, he said.
A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi upheld the 2010 Delhi high court verdict and dismissed three appeals filed by Secretary General of the Supreme Court and the Central Public Information officer of the apex court.
His second term as solicitor general was renewed recently.
The government and opposition were on Thursday united in criticising the functioning of the judiciary while seeking to scrap the collegium system of appointing judges to higher courts, saying it is essential to restore the delicate balance of power which has been disturbed.
The unprecedent letter, copies of which were also sent to 22 other apex court judges, has questioned the probe initiated by Karnataka high court Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari against District and Sessions Judge Krishna Bhat at the instance of Union ministry of law and justice,
a special bench comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna and B R Gavai said they were 'not entertaining the writ petition' that sought to restrain Gowri from taking oath 'in view of the grave threat to the independence of the judiciary'.
"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.
The Collegium system of appointing judges has not worked out as per expectations and the government must have a say in such appointments, Law Minister Kapil Sibal has said. He said he would "very soon" move a proposal in the Cabinet to replace the Collegium system with the Judicial Appointment Commission, which will give a say to the Executive in the appointments of judges to the Supreme Court and high courts.
Government is working on a proposal to change the present mechanism of appointment of judges by a collegium of judges.
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.
'The dignity of the judiciary is going down.' 'There may be disputes and differences of opinion.' 'These are most confidential things. How can they come to the public domain?' Kalyan Banerjee, MP, asks the Lok Sabha.
'If ever there was a decisive moment in the history of the Supreme Court where it has been under attack by the Executive, and the judges have boldly stood up for independence of the Judiciary, that time was now.' 'These four judges did a brilliant thing, they set an example.' 'They showed that they were fulfilling their duty to the Constitution and to God.' 'Don't allow fear to dictate your actions was their message.'
The bench refused to entertain the plea filed by NGO Association for Democratic Reforms and dismissed it.
None of the four judges -- Justices J Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi, M B Lokur and Kurian Joseph -- feature in the list of members of the 5-judge constitution bench.
Former Supreme Court judge Markandey Katju, currently chairman of Press Council of India, on Monday stirred a controversy by alleging that three ex-Chief Justices of India had compromised in giving extension to an additional judge of Madras high court at the instance of the United Progressive Alliance government in the wake of pressure from one of its allies, apparently Dravida Munnetra Kazahagham.
Justice Indira Banerjee, who was the eighth woman judge in the Supreme Court, on Friday demitted office with Chief Justice of India UU Lalit, terming her as a "jewel" of the legal fraternity.
The SC prima facie observed the task cannot be entrusted to the members of the collegium.
Counted as a judge who enriched the 'verdict docket' of the apex court, Justice Chandrachud is viewed as sharp, articulate and forward looking.
The four names cleared by the government are justices Aniruddha Bose, A S Bopanna, B R Gavai and Surya Kant.
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.
If the judiciary loses this fight, it will suffer irreparable damage and all of us citizens will be the losers.
'Judge Muralidhar was under transfer to Chandigarh for entirely opaque reasons but to abruptly ask him to leave day after a midnight hearing at his residence in Delhi that must have saved many lives manifests the arrogance of a Govt punch drunk on Power'
The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the Constitution has vested enormous powers on the "fragile shoulder" of the chief election commissioner and the two election commissioners and it wants a CEC of strong character like late T N Seshan.
Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, however, said that the appointment of judges would go ahead irrespective of whether new Memorandum of Procedure was in place or not.
A landmark bill to replace the collegium system of judges choosing judges was on Thursday passed in the Lok Sabha after government dropped a controversial provision that required unanimity in recommendation if the President seeks reconsideration.
